Essay On Main Street America

Main Street America states that, “parking is cited as the number one problem among cities and towns throughout the nation.” In the article, Solving the Parking Puzzle, Main Street America discusses the various ways in which towns can effectively implement parking polices and designs that will maximize the efficiency of the parking systems, as well as, customer convenience (National Main Street Center, 2013). First, is it important to conduct a parking survey. By understanding the actual parking supply and demand, towns will be able to develop and implement reasonable projections and improvement strategies. A parking survey can help the community resolve local issues about supply and demand, determine parking demand and behavior, project future parking demand, and help identify weak demand areas (National Main Street Center, 2013).
In addition, to help communities manage parking, the following concepts should be kept in mind: shared parking versus exclusive parking, on street, off street parking and the zoning ordinance, and short-term, long term parking, and parking meters. It is important to understand the difference between shared and exclusive parking. Shared parking is open to everyone in the community at any given time, making it more convenient for customers. Compared to exclusive parking or private parking, shared parking …show more content…
On street parking provides more opportunities for customers to park conveniently in front of stores and at least 25 percent of total parking should be curb parking. According to Main Street America, “if there is enough public parking and it’s reasonably well distributed, then there is no need for the zoning ordinance to require that commercial uses supply private off-street parking at all.” Being exempt from the zoning ordinance’s off-street parking requirement will significantly increase the community’s ability to attract new businesses to the district (National Main Street Center,