Des Moines removing one-way streets, adding bicycling infrastructure, walkability

[capitalcityguy]

Want to help downtown?

Parking
Parking
Parking
Parking
Parking

I think you get the point.

Actually, I'm not sure I do get your point. Is parking poorly managed currently, yes, but there is an overabundance of available parking spots currently. If anyone thinks downtown lacks parking, then that is good evidence to that fact.

A couple very telling thoughts from Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at University of California-Los Angeles, said in an October visit to Des Moines that the city doesn't lack parking spaces.

For anyone like me that geeks on this type of stuff, Dr Shoup is well-known as one of the leading experts in the country if not the world on this topic: He literally has written the book on parking in urban areas. https://www.shoupdogg.com/publications/

So he studies and researches this topic based on cities all over the world and he's in Des Moines thsi fall andd has this impression....

"I don’t think I’ve seen a city with so many parking structures," Shoup said.

After a tour of the city, Shoup said he was "astonished" at entire blocks where not one car was parked.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...ramps-begin-charging-park-saturday/873651001/

 

[wxman1]

I think it is funny how Gazette KCRG is constantly beating the Downtown CR is reinventing itself branding drum. Green Square Park re-landscaping will save downtown!!! NewBo market is the best thing since the Mall of America!!
I wonder if the boutique casino will get a bike trail paved up to it?
How about you get an IMAX theater? Oh, nevermind, your Chamber of Commerce/marketing/branding/tourism industry occupies the building that had one.

To be fair, Newbo has potential to actually be an authentic "bohemian" lifestyle neighborhood...but the artificial astroturf facebook hashtaging can't do it alone....

Wouldn't have to...the bike trail is already about 100 feet away from where it would have been!

 

[SCNCY]

Hopefully KC has better ideas then the cluster **** they tried on Grand

Are you referring to those green lanes they have that allow bikes to skip in front of all the cars at stoplights, so then the cars can pass them. Then when you get to the next stoplight, the bikes skip the line again so the cars can pass the bikes again?

 

[cycfan1]

Are you referring to those green lanes they have that allow bikes to skip in front of all the cars at stoplights, so then the cars can pass them. Then when you get to the next stoplight, the bikes skip the line again so the cars can pass the bikes again?

Yup. And you took a well traveled 2 lane road down to 1.

Why allow the bikes to move ahead when they have their own lane???

I live right by the new Trader's building...and its just a mess.

 

[capitalcityguy]

I’m not aware of this situation, but I assume you are talking about Grand in Ames?

Let me offer this. When you make it as convenient and easy as possible for cars (no matter where you are talking about) , the natural result is to induce more car usage over other options. When there is little or no incentive for people to seek out alternatives whether it be bike or bus or other, they take the easiest route. It is human nature. This is proven time and time again if you look at any study of a road or street that has been widen or a lane added. It temporarily relieves congestion only to be maxed out again eventually. If we had unlimited resources to continue to stay ahead of this fact pattern, then maybe that would be sustainable. That fact is however, it is not. We’ve built all this car-centric infrastructure post-WWII without ever running the numbers to see if we could actually afford to it. Once the Federal and state dollars stop rolling in that were used to build all this, cities are left holding the bag to try and maintain.



Not trying to be hyperbolic, but for some (many?) cities a version of Detroit is a glimpse into many cities’ future if they don’t proactively changes. Because Detroit was so prosperous at the time (and for obvious reasons fully supportive of all things automobile) , they went full bore into the car centric model almost everywhere in their city….probably a decade or two ahead of many other places. We all know how that worked out in the end.

 

[dmclone]

One word-Winter

 

[cyclonespiker33]

Actually, I'm not sure I do get your point. Is parking poorly managed currently, yes, but there is an overabundance of available parking spots currently. If anyone thinks downtown lacks parking, then that is good evidence to that fact.

A couple very telling thoughts from Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at University of California-Los Angeles, said in an October visit to Des Moines that the city doesn't lack parking spaces.

For anyone like me that geeks on this type of stuff, Dr Shoup is well-known as one of the leading experts in the country if not the world on this topic: He literally has written the book on parking in urban areas. https://www.shoupdogg.com/publications/

So he studies and researches this topic based on cities all over the world and he's in Des Moines thsi fall andd has this impression....


https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...ramps-begin-charging-park-saturday/873651001/

I had no idea that Des Moines was taking a loss on their parking.

 

[capitalcityguy]

…and that is just the hard numbers easily identifiable when looking at cost of a ramp vs the revenue it generates. In theory, each off-street parking spot costs a city something in terms of lost property tax revenue (since a parking lot isn’t valued nearly as high as a building).


This is why our (meaning everywhere….not just Des Moines) cities that have high concentration of more suburban styled develop patterns will struggle in the future as their infrastructure ages into the 2nd and 3rd life cycles and the cities are left with the miles of infrastructure (above and below ground) to maintain/repair but are handcuffed with acres and acres of their taxable land covered in seas of parking lots and huge gaps between buildings. The unproductive land use will be a huge burden because the taxable properties are far too spread out to generate enough revenue to pay for the associated infrastructure that was put into use to service them.