Parking Solutions in Downtown Madison
CONTACT PERSONS
Kristopher Arneson, kdarneson@students.wisc.edu
Gabriel Nardi, gknardi@hotmail.com
John Alliet, jpalliet@students.wisc.edu
Erik Rundell, ecrundell@students.wisc.edu
OBJECTIVE
To find and evaluate solutions to high parking pressures in the downtown area of Madison.
DESCRIPTION
Background
Increased commercial and residential activity in Madison’s downtown area results in a higher demand each year for parking. Recent developments, such as high-density condominiums, will lead to increased pressure at an even faster rate in the future. Rising property costs are currently a concern for city planners, as parking ramps in premium areas become less and less cost effective. Our project will address these issues by finding existing parking allotments, evaluating parking demand, examining possible solutions, and then comparing those solutions in effectiveness and cost.
Study Area
Our analysis will focus on the downtown area of Madison; specifically, east of Orchard Street, north of Drake Street, and southwest of Paterson Street, excluding UW property.
Proposed Tasks
The creation of an adequate parking-pressure model will be the first step in the analysis. This model will include evaluations of parking demand and parking availability. Parking demand will be modeled on zoning information, census data, and parking citation records. Parking availability will be modeled on counts of existing public and private parking facilities. With an evaluation for parking pressure in place, we will then explore solutions, ranging from purchase of privately-owned lots for parking to the installation of ramps over current parking lots. After a number of possible ‘solution sites’ have been chosen, we will compare them in terms of cost and effectiveness.