How to Solve a Parking Problem Without Breaking the Bank
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. ...
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.
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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.
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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.
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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