Caelen from Strong Towns Nanaimo will be making the case for the elimination of parking minimums in Nanaimo. He’ll be walking through the financial, social, and urbanist issues surrounding parking mandates as well as proposing motions to Mayor and Council. A repeal of costly parking mandates is critical for building sustainable cities with abundant and affordable housing. But we cant achieve transportation, equity, and climate goals without better curbside policies and transportation demand management (TDM).
“Assembling support for parking reform is like opening a combination lock: each small turn of the dial seems to achieve nothing, but when everything is in place the lock opens.” - Donald Shoup
From the Parking Reform Network: Performance-based on-street prices and flexible commuter benefits are essential strategies to reduce car trips. Cities must be convinced to spend parking revenues in ways that reduce car dependency, rather than on traffic inducing parking garages. The curb lane might be better used as a bus lane, bike lane, or streatery. Instead of spending tens of millions of dollars on park-and-ride garages, transit agencies should build housing.
The slides shown above were used in our presentation to Mayor and Council on the 18th. These policies deserve a focus and coordination that no other organization has a mission to provide. The Parking Reform Network needs your support to fill this void in the advocacy ecosystem.