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A Parking Case Study –
Parking in a large office building.

In the mid-1990s, a survey was taken to determine if there was a surplus of parking. The results indicated that there was at least one parking space for each employee.

The study area extended south from Sunrise Blvd to 17th Street and east from SW 7th Avenue to the Intracoastal. This large area included the International Building and Galleria Mall.

There were approximately 32,000 employees and 34,000 parking spaces.
The ratio is close to 1.1 parking spaces for each employee. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to suggest that commuters lacked access to parking. It would also turn out to be difficult to persuade commuters to take a shuttle bus to work, since they all had access to a parking space.

A recent (September 2001) micro study of two large office buildings on Las Olas Boulevard tells a different story.

450 Building
Employees estimated     700
Parking spaces available            577
Spaces available on typical day    80

350 Building
Employees estimated    900
Parking spaces available 725
Spaces available on typical day   20

Total number of employees: 1600
Total parking spaces: 1302

Ratio of parking spaces to employees: 0.81 to 1.
Ratio of employees to parking spaces: 1600/1302 = 1.24 to 1
Roughly 18 percent of the employees walk, ride a bicycle, share a ride (or get dropped off) or take the bus to work.
Source: Judy Carter [mailto:JudyC@stiles.com]
The writers of this study want to thank Judy Carter for taking time to arrange for the delivery of a parking survey with a memo from her desk to encourage all tenants to complete the survey.

A total of 25 surveys were returned (3%) by October 10. Judy certainly did her part in encouraging as high a response rate as could be expected for this topic.

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Should Visitors Get a Free Pass?

The impact of a parking ticket on a visitor’s memory of a place is difficult to predict. In some cases, the experience from the visitor’s perspective is so intensely difficult, there is little to do by the hospitality services (either the customer service desk at the City’s Parking Office or the Convention and Visitors Bureau staff). An analysis of the complaint letters received by the CVB show that each year two or three visitors take the time to write to complain about some aspect of the parking system.

Out of state registry of a vehicle is not a guaranteed indicator of the driver’s status as a visitor. (Some residents choose not to switch the registration of their cars to Florida, or they live here six months out of the year and can’t be considered visitors – “they should know better not to park on the Beach after 4 a.m.”). Receipts for paid tickets would be a useful source of statistics about the percentage of tickets issued to visitors. The parking organization could track to see if visitors have a particularly difficult time with signage or use of specific parking meters.

Another potential souce of feedback is collected by the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. The CVB’s “complaint binder” collects correspondence from particularly irate and motivated visitors who have taken the time to write a letter. A recent analysis of the collection of letters dating from August 1999 found that 24 out of a total of 48 letters related to to the expectations of guests toward their accommodations (quality of the hotel accommodations, reservations, service, etc.), 15 related to taxi service, four were directed at local attractions (boat tours, etc.), and a surprising 6 (about 16% of all complaints during the past 3 years) letters specifically about parking. (The remaining three complaints fell into a miscellaneous category).

Remedies
Remedies used by the CVB to assuage an irate letter writer include offering a certificate or pass that can be used locally (on the next trip).

Parking tickets can also leave a negative taste on local drivers. Some merchants consider parking meters in front of a store to be an obstacle to business and they feed the meters when they see the red “EXPIRED” sign.    Potential remedies to tickets given to local residents could include:

a) a one-time “get out of jail free”, one-time amnesty on a ticket. (Just a good will gesture). The person’s driver license is then on file along with the car and if either are associated with a future parking ticket, the fine would not be waived.

b) a pleasant note with the ticket:

“We are sorry that your meter expired. To encourage greater turnover of parking spaces on this street, we charge you to park here. We’d like to describe some of the projects that your parking fine will support. Please come again and we suggest that you consider using the AUTO PARK meter device which is pre-paid and doesn’t require you to carry exact change for the coin operated meters. Again, please accept our sincere apologies for giving you this ticket, but we hope you will avoid them in the future.”

With the brochure could be a small pie chart diagram that describes the proportions of the fine that are allocated to paying bonds on the parking garage and the part that goes to future projects or “commissioner’s discretionary fund” which supports local community activities.