How to Solve a Parking Problem Without Breaking the Bank

Lockport, Illinois, won our 2021 Strongest Town contest—chosen by you, our readers—because they demonstrated just how much local leaders there have adopted a Strong Towns approach to urban development. That approach, it must be emphasized, is not a final destination: it's not about having solved all your city's problems, but about how you go about solving them. It's about iterating on success, asking not, "How do we solve this problem forever?" but, "What's the next, best small thing we can do?" 

One program Lockport instituted in the past year that was explicitly inspired by the Strong Towns mindset got our attention for being a thoughtful and effective "small bet" of the sort that too many places overlook. It has to do with—what else?—parking.

Image via Unsplash.

How to Solve an Actual Parking Problem

"No city has a parking problem" is a good rule to go by, in the sense that virtually no American city has an absolute shortage of parking—we've just built So. Much. of the stuff. But sometimes you actually do have a parking problem, in the sense that the parking isn't quite where you need it to be, when you need it, and the experience of parking is a hassle for businesses and their employees and customers alike. It’s a geographic mismatch between the supply of and demand for parking.

This was the case in downtown Lockport, which has seen a remarkable revitalization in the past few years, with new businesses including restaurants and a microbrewery. It's not that there's an absolute shortage of parking. There's an abundance of it in two lots at the fringes of the downtown strip, but parking is scarce right on State Street where most businesses are. And it's been even scarcer since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, as some of that street space was reserved for outdoor dining and/or curbside pickup. 

A lot of cities in this position would have taken the feedback from businesses that their customers and employees were struggling to park nearby and concluded, "We have a parking shortage downtown." Hundreds of cities like Lockport operate municipal parking garages—almost always at a loss, if not in direct revenue then when you consider the opportunity cost of that land, which isn't paying taxes or producing jobs. Just this May, Lockport's southern neighbor Joliet sold a parking garage to a private company, rather than have to pay to maintain it.

Lockport city officials instead asked a powerful question: "How can we mitigate this problem as fast as possible, without causing undue headache and uproar with businesses?" They opted for a more immediate and creative solution: a valet program.

The city of Lockport took the lead, pitching the idea to downtown businesses. "They literally just walked into the businesses and said, 'Hey, what if we provide valet for you guys?’” says Scott Struchen, Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Tangled Roots Brewing Company, which operates the Lock & Mule in downtown Lockport. 

Image via Unsplash.

To the city, the valet concept was a no-brainer, once they began looking into it, compared to the far costlier and more permanent alternatives. They could spend $12 million on a garage—something Mayor Steve Streit says they were not in a position to do—or they could spend $75,000 trying out valet for a year, with no obligation to continue the program if problems arose. 

The valet program was first proposed in 2020 but delayed on account of the pandemic. In March 2021, Lockport approved a $75,000 contract with VIP Valet Services. The program is paid for entirely out of revenue from a video gaming fund—as of two years ago, there were 85 gaming terminals in Lockport alone.

The valet program currently operates Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the late afternoon and evening. There are two valet stands on State Street that get customers within a block's walking distance of most of Lockport's restaurants and breweries: visitors can pull up, receive a ticket, and have their car parked for them.

Struchen believes the valet service has supported the vitality of Lockport's businesses, many of which are hurting because of COVID-19 and its aftermath. The Lock & Mule opened in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. "We were under construction when it happened, and I didn't want to stop the ship," says Struchen, whose Tangled Roots Brewing Company operates several establishments throughout Illinois, but is new to Lockport. "As soon as we could open, we were going to open. We did the best we could with the cards that we were dealt." 

Lockport supported its downtown businesses through the pandemic with space reserved for outdoor dining, issued an order allowing alcoholic beverage consumption in these spaces, and fast-tracked permitting for such uses. The valet service was just another piece of the puzzle.

On top of providing a convenient parking option that doesn't require devoting any more land to parking spaces, Lockport's valet program has improved the flow of traffic downtown, by eliminating a lot of the congestion caused by cars cruising for a parking space. Cruising is responsible for a surprising share of the traffic in lively urban areas, a finding made famous by parking economist Donald Shoup. A collection of studies in various cities found that it accounted for an average of 30% of the traffic in surveyed areas. 

In addition, according to Struchen, the program has added to the "sense of experience" for those visiting downtown Lockport. The city's attractive historic core is now a destination for a special night out, and the parking program induces guests to stroll around and experience Lockport, as well as drawing in people from surrounding communities who might otherwise not have come. Struchen sees it as a vote of confidence in the businesses spearheading Lockport's revitalization. "The city’s going out of their way to say, 'Hey, we know you’re a business in our town. We care about you. And we want you to be successful.'"

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