I have just reread for the fourth time an article published by the Commercial Real Estate Development Association titled “Parking in a Post Pandemic Economy.” I cannot for the life of me understand why the article was written at all.
It says that when the country was on lock down, parking activity dropped over 90%. Well duh. Then it returned to near normal, upwards of 85% in most areas. It then posits that cities lost many on street spaces due to outdoor eating requirements. Fair enough.
It projects that work from office vs work from home will change how traffic patterns and parking will be affected. But of course, it doesn’t say how. The author quotes stats from Parkmobile’s monthly report. At least those are accurate. But totally expected.
It is filled with the words “if, may, could, perhaps” but not one actual statement that you could hang you hat on. I love this last sentence:
There are many questions that remain to be answered, but this pandemic-fueled pause in the pace of normal life may open up new and better opportunities for transportation, which will drastically impact parking.
Just what does that mean. I guess I’m wondering why people write articles like this one. They state the obvious, make predictions that are based on conjecture, contradict themselves and then summarize with a vacuous sentence like the one above.
The author, Robert Downey, is a transportation consultant, an Emeritus Fellow of the Transportation Research Board, and an adjunct professor in Georgetown University’s Real Estate Program in the School of Continuing Studies. Wow.
JVH
2 Responses
I did not read it 4 times, just twice. I stopped reading because each time my understanding of Managing and projecting Parking for the next year decreased. Sometimes I guess if you have “Professor” in your title you just have to write articles. Doing research to get it right can take a lot of time………When I’m talking about the future of parking I always use Greenville SC as my model city.
Publish or perish. A tough habit to shake, even as an emeritus fellow.