Hospital Should Consider 85% Rule - Better Ways to Manage Parking

You just can't get away from the feeling that the paper is acting as a captive PR arm of the Hospital.

Like the earlier move of pitting advocates for a new playground against preservationists, the latest play is clearly an attempt to pit patients (and prospective patients, as we all are) against preservationists and neighborhood advocates.

This is low and mean.

Parking garage and lots from higher up

It also ignores the way free parking is a public health problem. The Centers for Disease Control says:

Although motor vehicle emissions have decreased significantly over the past three decades, traffic emissions continue to help cause undesirable respiratory and cardiovascular health effects and the degradation of our environment. Reducing the mileage that people drive has the potential to improve air quality and shift travel to other transportation options that can also promote physical activity.

Strategies recommended in existing Transportation HIAs:

• Consider policies that reduce vehicle miles traveled; these policies can include vehicle miles traveled tax, tolls, or congestion pricing in downtown areas.
• Implement parking pricing schemes.
• Reduce the availability of on and off street parking to encourage alternate forms of transportation.
• Create alternatives to single occupancy vehicle travel through the improvement of multimodal transportation options, including carpools, vanpools, public transportation, and active transportation—any self-propelled, human-powered mode of transportation. [italics added]

And the Salem River Crossing recommends this also.

Salem River Crossing Alternate Modes Study

And we already know what to do first when parking seems full. Apply the 85% rule.

Parking Made Easy: A Guide to Managing Parking
Oregon Transportation and Growth Management

There are no current "best practices" in Public Health or Facilities Planning or Urban Planning that says paving new parking lots is the first and best solution to be considered when a real or perceived parking problem exists.

The Hospital is arguing conveniently rather than truthfully. There are several things that should be implemented first before expanding parking lots.

(For the whole history and all notes on the Blind School redevelopment, see here.)