banner
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman
@siegman.biz
3K followers 160 following 7.5K posts
Transportation planner and economist. Founder, Siegman & Associates. Formerly Principal & Shareholder at Nelson\Nygaard. LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/5cekhrjh
tinyurl.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · Nov 29
Owners of even the cheapest fleabag motels know they must keep track of how many rooms they have and whether they are empty or full.

But today, the year’s busiest shopping day, most retail areas won’t be tracking how many parking spots they have and whether they are empty or full. 🧵/1
A photograph of a long row of parking spaces inside a concrete parking garage, with a single lonely car sitting in one space.
4 28 160
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 13h
People underestimate the risk of driving while on the phone or after drinking. Firefighters and code officials are no exception. Sometimes, it costs them their career. All too often, it costs someone else their life.

www.sfgate.com/crime/articl...
Ex-firefighter surrenders in SF rig crash, faces 3 charges
A former San Francisco firefighter surrendered Monday to face felony drunken-driving...
www.sfgate.com
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 13h
"crash-risk studies have estimated that cell phone use increases the risk of crashing by roughly threefold."
www.dmv.ca.gov
1 2
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 13h
"The United States Fire Administration (USFA), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, cites motor vehicle crashes as the cause of death for between 20–25% of the annual line-of-duty fatalities. Motor vehicle crashes are the second highest cause of death for firefighters."
1 2 8
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 13h
Make sure tandem & stacked parking stalls are legal & count toward satisfaction of minimum parking mandates.

Review the city's driveway standards. Minimize requirements for # of lanes, lane widths, vertical clearance, sight triangles, turning radii, warning buzzers, etc.

bsky.app/profile/step...
stephenjacobsmith.com
Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · Oct 10
I like the one in my mom’s building in Bucharest. Small spaces (no way could you fit a Ford F-350 in one), steep ramps, one shared lane in and out, buried underground beneath a 15-unit building. Beyond eliminating parking minimums, we need to reverse parking standard bloat.
1 2
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 17h
“…prices in #Oakland, which saw a boom of downtown apartment construction right before the pandemic, are still much softer than they were in 2019. Prices are down 21% from six years ago, by far the steepest drop of any major city tracked...”

The laws of supply and demand apply to housing.
S.F. rent surge is outpacing every big U.S. city. Here’s what’s driving the increase
San Francisco rentals are leasing faster and pricing higher than they have at any point since the pandemic.
www.sfchronicle.com
5
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 19h
Parking first, nuns last:

“The council also refused planning permission as the lack of on-site car parking spaces for the proposed development would be seriously deficient.”
Dublin City Council refuses planning permission for nun retirement accommodation | BreakingNews
The City Council has refused planning permission to Keith Craddock's Granville Developments Ltd for the three-storey residential accommodation at Haddington Place on a site to the rear of Sisters of t...
www.breakingnews.ie
1 2
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 19h
"Despite momentum, three-quarters of residential land is still zoned for detached houses, and smaller townhouse projects often face the same red tape as apartment towers. Planning rules around setbacks, deep planting, and parking minimums add further financial hurdles."
Australians swapping backyards for courtyards as “gentle density” rises
The great Australian dream of a house on a quarter-acre block is slowly giving way to something different – courtyards replacing backyards, and townhouses...
propertyupdate.com.au
1 9
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 20h
Minimum parking mandates are going in one direction: down. Even in America’s car capital, they’re going down.
Detroit planning commission backs zoning changes to boost housing density
The ordinance now heads to City Council for approval.
www.crainsdetroit.com
6
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 20h
Minimum parking laws force-feed cities with too much parking. They leave buildings marooned in oceans of asphalt. In this parking-induced sprawl, poor people are pushed to rely on cars that they can ill afford. If America keeps these mandates, it will always have too few homes and too much asphalt.
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 20h
#Fayetteville has become a city with expensive homes for people and free homes for cars. That’s no surprise. Minimum parking laws hide the high cost of parking in the cost of housing. If Fayetteville keeps these mandates, it will always have too much asphalt & too few homes. It’ll never “get there.”
NWA EDITORIAL | A community less focused on cars might make more room for housing, but is Fayetteville there yet? | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Housing in Northwest Arkansas is a hot topic and has been for a long while. It's made so because of high demand and a shortage of residential units considered affordable to people in the lower and mid...
www.nwaonline.com
1 2
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 21h
Many realtors are elderly homeowners who fear change and like their neighborhood the way it is. Many have never taken an economics class in their life, so any prospect that more homes might somehow increase their income is often dimly understood at best, and not very meaningful to them anyway.
1
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 1d
When curb parking is underpriced, it’s often overcrowded:

“The Globe used similar data from #Boston to find more than 300 households held at least five residential parking permits, including a couple with 11 in the South End and a city employee with five in the North End.”
Court rules public has right to know who has Somerville parking passes
The state has spent more than $365,000 in attorney fees in the 10-year fight with Somerville over the public release residential parking permits details. An appellate court ruled in the state's favor.
www.wbur.org
1 3 9
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 1d
“Officials in #Salem deserve praise for a zoning change that could make it significantly easier to build housing in the city. The ordinance…ends minimum parking mandates for new multifamily housing developments with three or more units.”
Our View: Putting brakes on parking space rules a win for housing
Officials in Salem, Mass., deserve praise for a zoning change that could make it significantly easier to build housing in the city.
www.newburyportnews.com
2 4
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 1d
“Staff research also showed that while many northern B.C. communities have reduced downtown parking minimums, only 2 of 7 surveyed have removed them completely.”

Many planners' idea of “research” seems to be to blindly copy the practices of nearby towns, in hopes that THEY know what they’re doing.
Council supports reduced parking rules for downtown Kitimat developments
Motion passed to revise bylaw for flexible parking requirements based on land use
www.northernsentinel.com
2
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 1d
“If passed,” the #Massachusetts “bill would outlaw any zoning ordinances or bylaws prohibiting the development of multifamily housing & duplexes in areas connected to sewer systems & centrally managed water….The bill would also outlaw minimum parking lot requirements on new residential developments”
4
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 1d
"...could cut costs, attract investment and breathe life into struggling neighborhoods.”
3
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 1d
“Seas of asphalt, blighted properties, and a shrinking business base -- #Shreveport leaders say decades of outdated parking rules are part of the problem....

On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Planning Commission voted to eliminate minimum parking requirements citywide, a reform supporters say..."
Do we really need all these empty parking lots? Shreveport leaders say, "No.”
SHREVEPORT, La. -- Seas of asphalt, blighted properties, and a shrinking business base -- Shreveport leaders say decades of outdated parking rules are part of the problem. Now, a major
www.easternprogress.com
1 7
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 1d
Here are two questions for advocates. If physically redesigning streets to slow down traffic is the best course of action:

1️⃣Which city staff members are most likely to vociferously disagree?

2️⃣Which city staff members are granted the power, under state law, to approve or veto any such redesign?
graue.bsky.social
Scott Feeney @graue.bsky.social · 2d
I'd agree that's *better*, but *best* is to change the streets themselves.

"Wise hypothesized that the Bryant Street camera had such a high volume of tickets because it...is a wide street with multiple lanes...which encourage[s] fast driving." Fix that. It's cheaper and more effective than cameras.
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 2d
The best way to stop the killings on our streets is to hold people accountable every time they endanger others (even if the penalty is small). It’s not long prison terms for reckless drivers after they run people down.

That’s one lesson we should take from the remarkable success of speed cameras.
Speed Safety Cameras
www.sfmta.com
1 8
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 2d
Analysis finds that “comparing a single day before the speed camera implementation with one day after, average speeds came down at every single one of those 15 corridors last month. It also found that the share of vehicles speeding by more than 10 miles an hour over the limit fell by a whopping 78%“
S.F. speed cameras are generating mountains of tickets and fines. Here are the totals so far
August was the first month that San Francisco’s automated speed cameras generated citations with a fine. One camera accounted for a quarter of all the tickets, according to data.
www.sfchronicle.com
1 8 31
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 4d
If all else fails, try the publisher’s website.
1
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 4d
Source: books.apple.com/us/book/park...
‎Parking and the City
‎Nonfiction · 2018
books.apple.com
1 2
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 4d
“Planners are not oracles who can divine the demand for parking. More often, they act as mediators between opposing political interests. I have never met a city planner who could intelligently explain why any parking requirement should not be higher or lower.”

— Donald Shoup
1 7
siegman.biz
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 4d
Today! Appropriately, the event is free, but the parking is not.
uclaits.bsky.social
UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · Sep 3
Join us next month for a celebration of the life and work of Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Donald Shoup. Learn more and RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e...
Black-and-white photo of Donald Shoup smiling while wearing a helmet and patterned sweater, seated on a bicycle. Overlaid text reads: “A Celebration of the Life and Work of Donald Shoup — October 3, 2:00 pm – 6:30 pm.”
2 2 19
Reposted by Patrick Siegman
citizen-cate.bsky.social
Catie Gould @citizen-cate.bsky.social · 5d
In good news, I got this book just in time to bring to Shoup’s memorial service at UCLA tomorrow. Very special that he got to read & edit these essays in tribute to his work before he passed away last year. 🥹
Shoup Doctrine, book about Donald Shoup’s work on parking reform.
1 10 72