Will Reducing Parking Standards Lead to Reductions in Parking Supply?

To promote land-efficient development that supports nonautomobile modes of transportation, many municipalities are trying to implement parking policies that minimize parking oversupply and use existing parking supply more effectively. A commonly proposed strategy is for municipalities to lower their minimum parking standards. However, parking supply decisions are based on many factors, and experience shows that reducing parking standards does not always lead to corresponding reductions in parking supply. Using the results of an extensive commercial parking survey conducted across the City of Toronto, Canada, this study develops an empirical approach to determine whether reductions in parking standards are likely to lead to reductions in the amount of parking supplied by new development. It is proposed that the proportion of existing sites supplying less parking than existing standards require can be used as an indicator of the likelihood of developers to respond to reductions in parking standards by providing less parking. This assumes that the development characteristics of surveyed sites can be considered representative of current development practices. Applying such an analysis to Toronto, it is expected that reducing the parking standards for general office, medical office, and general retail uses will be a successful strategy in encouraging new development to provide fewer parking spaces on average. Such a strategy will be less successful for bank and large grocery uses, which tend to provide more parking and are less sensitive to minimum parking standards.