CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the Commuter Parking and Access principles
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation, Engineering and Development
SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer Louden, Deputy Director
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City’s commuter parking programs, comprised of a combination of renewable quarterly permits and daily fee spaces, were not efficiently meeting the needs of the commuter population. This was demonstrated by years-long waitlists for quarterly permits for the Naperville Station, combined with higher utilization of daily fee spaces than permit spaces. A Commuter Parking and Access Work Plan was developed during 2019 to address operational issues and abuses in the City’s legacy parking programs while also preparing to implement technology to improve commuter access to the existing parking supply.
Between June 2019, when the work plan was approved, and March 2020, significant progress was made in addressing the abuses of the current system. The following actions were completed:
• Commuter Parking Rules and Regulations update: The Commuter Parking Rules and Regulations were updated to implement stricter rules surrounding permit use, including elimination of the carpool program and an added requirement that permit holders submit vehicle registration information to demonstrate that vehicles included in the account are registered to their address.
• Commuter quarterly parking permit account audits: Staff conducted an audit of the 2,608 permit holder accounts that were active in July 2019. The audit required all account holders to submit updated account information along with acceptable vehicle registration information. Permits were revoked when commuters did not provide the required information within the specified timeframe. The process resulted in a decrease in the number of permits issued for each lot due to both voluntary cancels and cancellations due to lack of response to the audit. Occupancy rates at all three Naperville Station lots (Kroehler, Burlington and Parkview) decreased after the regulations were updated and the audit began, which allowed for an aggressive number of permits to be offered to waitlisted commuters for the first and second quarters of 2020. This resulted in multiple year decreases to the waitlists.
• Commuter quarterly parking permit field audits: Staff developed the process for conducting field audits of parked vehicles once the account audits were completed for the Naperville Station lots. Intended to discourage secondhand permit transfers, the field audits were conducted to confirm that displayed permits were used in vehicles that were properly registered to the permit account. Audits were conducted periodically during the first quarter of 2020 and resulted in ten account terminations.
The work plan was developed under the assumption that demand for commuter parking and access would remain high; however, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to historic low levels of commuter activity. Significant progress on additional work plan items could not be pursued due to the decline in commuter activity.
Knowing that the work plan would need to be re-evaluated, staff issued a survey during fall 2020 to obtain commuter input to be used when establishing new goals and actions related to commuter parking and access. The 2,172 survey responses received indicated that commuting patterns and frequency would shift when commuters begin regularly riding Metra again:
• Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 76% of respondents said that they were commuting on Metra four or more days per week.
• Only 37% indicated that they would commute four or more days per week when they resume commuting, with the majority of respondents (45%) indicating they would commute one to three days per week.
• Nearly 1,700 respondents said that the ability to work remotely would influence their commuting pattern in the future.
• 69% of respondents said that the City should consider other parking options besides quarterly and daily fees.
DISCUSSION:
The long-term impact of the pandemic on commuter patterns, and therefore parking and access demands at the Naperville and Route 59 Metra stations, remains uncertain. Although Metra ridership has steadily increased during 2021, it is not possible to predict when, if ever, ridership will reach pre-pandemic levels of 4,100 and 5,800 daily riders at the Naperville and Route 59 stations, respectively. The significant disruption to working and commuting patterns has afforded the City an opportunity to revisit the approach to commuter parking and access and address long-term challenges with the current programs.
As new commuting norms emerge, it is important to have established principles to guide continued improvements to commuter parking and access that build off the accomplishments of the 2019 plan while providing flexibility and adaptability for the future. Staff recommends establishing two principles to establish the overarching goal for commuter parking and address overall access to the station. Both principles are explained in detail below.
Principle 1: The City will provide commuter parking programs that maximize the use of the existing total parking supply by providing flexible parking options and fair privileges to all commuters.
Commuters currently have two options for parking at the Naperville and Route 59 stations: renewable quarterly permit or daily fee.
Quarterly permit spaces are reserved for commuters who hold a permit for the specified parking lot. The benefit to these spaces is that the permit holder has security of knowing that a spot will be available. However, because there are long waitlists for the permits, many permit holders retain their permits but don’t use them. This increases the wait times for other commuters, results in lower occupancy rates of the permit spaces, and makes the program difficult to manage. In addition, permit holders do not have flexibility in terms of paying for parking only when needed. They must pay for the permit each quarter regardless of how many days they commute.
Daily fee parking is available to all commuters on a first-come, first-served basis and commuters only need to pay for the parking on the specific days they commute. While these spaces offer the most flexibility, commuters are not guaranteed that a space will be available.
As previously noted, these options do not currently meet the needs of the commuter population. The ideal parking program would combine the benefits of each parking type to provide flexibility to use and pay for parking as it is needed while having a greater degree of certainty that a space will be available. To work towards an improved program, in the near term the City can modify the distribution of daily fee spaces versus permit spaces at the Naperville Station. In the long term the City should improve or eliminate the quarterly permit system and seek ways to improve the overall certainty of obtaining a space through technology enhancements.
The following actions will be pursued in support of Principle 1:
• Engage a consultant to evaluate the City’s commuter parking programs and make recommendations related to program improvements and modifications, parking fee structure and technology solutions. The 2019 plan noted that many of the challenges at the Naperville Station are unique and that working with a parking consultant with national experience could provide significant value. The prior actions taken to eliminate the sources of abuse in the current programs have positioned the City well to have a consultant use diverse experience to recommend operational and technology improvements.
• Modify the distribution of daily fee versus quarterly permit spaces at the Naperville Station by converting the Parkview Lot from permit to daily fee. This would add 122 daily fee spaces and the Parkview permit holders will be accommodated in the Burlington Lot.
• Commit to improving or eliminating the quarterly permit system by halting issuance of new Naperville Station permits and closing the waitlist to new applicants.
Currently there are fewer active permits for each Naperville Station lot than is typical. This is due to a higher than average number of permit cancellations during the pandemic combined with no new permits being issued since the second quarter of 2020. New permits for Naperville Station lots have not been issued since that time due to a lack of reliable data by which to determine an appropriate number to issue. These conditions afford the City the opportunity to implement these actions during the remainder of 2021 and throughout 2022. Additional details on each action will be shared prior to implementation.
Principle 2: The City will maintain a multi-modal approach to accessing the Naperville and Route 59 Metra Stations.
The City has historically supported a comprehensive multi-modal approach that provides commuters with a variety of options when accessing the Naperville and Route 59 stations. It is important to maintain a focus on all modes of access to help balance the demand for parking and mitigate traffic congestion on the streets surrounding the stations. All Pace commuter feeder bus routes were eliminated during the pandemic; therefore, a key focus will be how to re-introduce commuter bus service as commuter activity increases.
The following actions will be pursued in support of Principle 2:
• Partner with Pace Bus to identify service for Naperville as commuter activity increases.
• Maintain appropriate loading/unloading zones for transit vehicles at both stations.
• Designate rideshare spaces to reduce mode conflicts.
These actions will be pursued as opportunities arise.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no direct fiscal impact associated with approving the Commuter Parking and Access principles. Costs associated with implementing the supporting actions will be programmed in future year Commuter Fund budgets.