The purpose of a downtown parking management plan is to identify the parking issues, concerns, and needs, both current and future, and to outline recommendations and strategies for improved and effective management of parking in a downtown area.
Historically, a city wishing to “solve its parking problem” in a high-demand area has generally focused on increasing the supply of off-street parking. However, simply increasing supply does not fully address the core problem of concentrated demand, in which popular on-street spaces are consistently oversubscribed while nearby off-street spaces often remain underutilized.
The goal of parking demand management is to manage demand for curb spaces to ensure availability, while also optimizing utilization of the existing off-street supply to meet a variety of parking needs. Effective parking management strategies can result in positive economic impacts for local businesses as it allows employees, residents, and visitors to better utilize the parking supply to shop, dine, or recreate.