Vision: The people who regularly come into downtown Raleigh to shop and dine are knowledgeable about where to park, and do not see parking availability or cost as an issue that inhibits them from enjoying the downtown lifestyle.

Target audience

  • Casual visitors to DT on evenings and weekends
  • Persons living inside the beltline
  • Young professionals and families

Mission

Make parking easier for the casual visitor

  • Examine and understand the issues driving use of parking decks as revenue generators and whether this is the best policy.
    • DRA to promote parking as a benefit to downtown merchants
    • Downtown District branded parking promotion effort
    • Better way-finding ‘parking’ signs, better visibility
    • Possible parking symbols painted on streets
  • Combat the perception of park and walk convenience between malls and downtown.
    • Look for studies that compare walking distance between parking in a large suburban lot versus walking a few blocks downtown.
    • How far does the average mall shopper walk to get where they want to go?
    • Rebrand the downtown as the “easy access” destination.
  • Look into new opportunities to share parking between different users at different times of the day/week.
    • The city should try to work with the state to make the state-owned parking lots available to the public during evenings and weekends.
    • As about half of all parking downtown is private – the city could work with the owners of the private parking decks to allow the public access to the unused spaces.
  • Explore how mobile technology could make parking easier by providing navigation (walking and driving) to / from parking space and final destination.

Making parking prices better match demand

  • The price for parking should vary by location and time of day
    • Popular places at peak times should cost more
    • Target price is that which produces enough free spaces to reduce driving around to find a parking spot; on-street versus decks.
  • Harmonize rates between owners (City, County, State, Private)
    • Include this in marketing, awareness campaigns

Work with surrounding neighborhoods

  • Promote parking initiatives in downtown to prevent spillover into neighborhoods
  • Get ahead of “park outside and walk in” problem by daytime workers, possible conflict with neighborhoods

Other related issues

  • Misconception that on-street parking is still too expensive
  • Find creative ways to build community with those living outside downtown such that they can share the same sense of ownership and experience of downtown residents and be part of our unique community through a more personal connection.
  • Encourage more walking/cycling/transit, e.g. promote the Walk Raleigh initiative
  • New land use initiatives to better connect downtown districts