By Larson McDonagh
Looking to expand parking options, boost the local economy, and enhance the visitor experience, the City of Riverside, California, recently implemented a valet pilot program in the heart of downtown. The move is the latest step in the city’s efforts to meet community expectations while improving the financial performance of its parking program.
‘From bad to good’
For years, Riverside’s parking services division struggled to keep its head above water. From 2018 to 2021, the public service lost approximately $2.6 million, according to city council reports.
In 2023, the city adjusted its parking rates to “stop the bleeding,” said Erik Lue, the public parking services manager for Riverside. Rather than blindsiding commuters with new programs and higher prices, the city sought to build a sustainable parking program by centering community values.
To this end, the city hosted engagement meetings and conducted surveys to ask constituents about their expectations for their parking experience. During this community outreach, residents resoundingly indicated they wanted parking to be clean, safe, and accessible.
In response, the city began weekly power washing of garages, implemented 24/7 security, and created an app to manage curb space. The app allows free on-street parking for 30 minutes and free garage parking for 60 minutes. Users can extend their parking session through the app by adding their payment information, making parking more convenient.
‘Good to great’
Within a year, these improvements transformed the parking program’s $2 million deficit into a $2 million surplus, Lue said. With extra money in the bank, the city was able to implement valet parking.
“That’s where the affordable and accessible parking came into play, because people say there’s no parking downtown,” Lue said. “There is parking. It’s just not where you want to park.”
As a college town with high-end restaurants and nightclubs, Riverside experiences a lot of traffic on weekends, when street parking would fill up and even block residential driveways, said Mostafa Tohamy, a regional director of hospitality at ACE Parking, the parking operator and technology provider that Riverside hired to operate the valet program.
“We’re taking the [parking] program from bad to good [and] now good to great,” Lue said. “Valet parking is that next level of making parking accessible.”
Using underutilized parking
Riverside’s valet program hosts several stations strategically located in high-traffic areas such as entertainment centers. Valet rates are $20 per vehicle, increasing to $30 per vehicle during special events. Valet attendants park vehicles in an underutilized downtown garage.
“The thought process was to open up these valet stands, so that they can get the cars out of the downtown area and utilize those underutilized parking garages,” Lue said. The program was also designed to avoid taking away parking spaces in areas that are in high demand by those parking their own vehicles. “This is our commitment to the community we serve,” Lue noted.
The city uses TEZ’s SMS Valet system to manage valet transactions. When drivers drop off their vehicles, they receive a text that enables them to communicate with the valet teams. One highlight of the program is that customers can drop off their vehicle at one valet station and pick it up at a different location later.
Business validation
Businesses have the option to participate in the valet program by validating customer parking. Participating businesses establish a vendor account with ACE Parking and “can pre-purchase a set volume of validations or pay as you go,” Lue noted. “Pre-purchase validations receive a 10% discount off the valet rate, whereas pay-as-you-go is the full valet rate.”
Participating businesses can engage in marketing as part of the valet program. They “have an option to promote their business with branded items such as a complimentary bottle of water, breath mints, [and] coupons for future visits,” Lue said.
“We’re not here to try to make money off of valet,” Lue said. “It’s not really about that. It’s about increasing the experience and the value that we bring…to the community and to the businesses.”
As the valet program enters its fourth month of operation, Lue hopes that integrating different parking technologies will make Riverside’s parking program the best in the region. Among its plans for improving parking in the city, Riverside aims to prepare a parking reservation platform for event, valet, and self-parking, as well as conduct real-time monitoring of on-street and off-street parking. Ultimately, “the city has plans to include real-time wayfinding to encourage drivers to park in underutilized areas and facilities at discounted rates based on demand,” Lue said.
Larson McDonagh is a freelance environmental journalist based in Shoreline, Washington. They can be reached at [email protected].
