2018 Parking Study Project Overview

Background

The City of Durham has completed a downtown parking study to help understand the nature of parking in light of emerging trends, plan for Durham’s needs over the next 10 years, and build on the findings of the 2018 Comprehensive Parking Study.

Goals & Objectives

The City’s Transportation Department has identified the following goals and objectives for this parking study:

  1. Capacity: A quantitative assessment of the supply and demand for downtown public parking, to include a determination on the need for additional parking or whether there is excess parking capacity in both the short-term and future development scenarios.
  2. Maintenance and Management: Strategies to improve the maintenance and management of City-owned surface parking lots, garages, and on-street parking stalls, to include an evaluation of shared parking systems.
  3. Operations: An evaluation of the days and hours of parking enforcement, current parking restrictions, and associated wayfinding signage effectiveness.
  4. Safety & Convenience: Ways to provide safe, convenient parking for all downtown users including residents, employees, and visitors as well as accommodations for special events.
  5. Pricing: A determination of the need and feasibility for demand-based pricing or changes to current parking rates for garages, surface lots, and on-street parking.
  6. Design: Recommended design improvements to increase the efficiency of City-owned parking facilities, to include improvements to parking-related signs and other wayfinding, and/or new parking facilities.

Advisory Committee

The project is guided by an Advisory Committee that is reviewing interim products and steering the study so that it addresses issues relevant to stakeholders. The City believes that the active participation of local stakeholders is necessary for the development of a parking strategy that will ultimately be implemented by the City’s Transportation Department. The Advisory Committee meets periodically to assist in disseminating information to the public and agency leadership, and includes the following members:

  • City Manager’s Office
  • City of Durham Transportation Department/Parking Management Division
  • City-County Planning Department
  • Downtown Durham, Inc.
  • Durham County Finance Department
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of City and Regional Planning

 Parking Survey Presentation

The Parking Study Presentation is available for download here.

Please direct any questions or comments to Thomas Leathers.