Parking Utilization for Neighborhood Shopping Centers Along Transit Routes in San Jose: Are Minimum Parking Requirements Too High?

摘要

This paper examines the minimum parking requirements of shopping centers located near SantaClara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail stations in San Jose, CA. VTA, theprimary transit provider in Santa Clara County, CA, has supported reduced parking requirementsfor proposed transit oriented developments along its transit lines, but parking reductions haveoften been opposed by local decision makers, city council members, and the public. Untilrecently, VTA has been unable to provide locally-based research to support the claim that currentparking minimums have led to excessive parking. This paper seeks to provide evidence todecision-makers that supports the argument that parking requirements can be reduced along lightrail transit lines. Two parking utilization surveys found that utilization of free surface parking isfar lower than capacity during both the holiday shopping season and the off-season for thirteenneighborhood shopping centers located near VTA light rail stations. Furthermore, the surveysfound that increases in seasonal parking demand did not occur for most of the shopping centerssurveyed. The results suggest that minimum parking requirements for these neighborhood15oriented shopping centers located near VTA light rail stations are too high.