What's New

Our Transportation Future Releases White Paper on Transportation and the Massachusetts Economy - July 2010

This white paper, released by Our Transportation Future (OTF), reviews state, regional and national literature on the relationship between transportation investment and the economy to make the case that Massachusetts must continue to invest boldly in its transportation future in order to ensure its economic future.

MAPC is a member of OTF, which is a diverse coalition of organizations representing business, industry, planning, labor, municipal and environmental interests working together for increased transportation investment in Massachusetts.

Download the white paper: http://www.mapc.org/resources/otf-transportation-paper

For more information about this paper, please contact Transportation Manager Eric Bourassa at ebourassa@mapc.org.

MAPC Annual Meeting - Cambridge June 2, 2010

The MAPC annual meeting was held in Cambridge with a focus on transportation issues.  Keynote speaker was Therese McMillan, Deputy Secretary of the Federal Transit Administration.

Presentations from the breakout sessions are available here for viewing.Reardon VMT presentation 6_2_2010

Regan - ITS and Highways Dempsey - MassDOT Developers Presentation Furth Congestion Protection MAPC

Parking Workshop Held in Lexington on April 28, 2010

As part of the Department of Housing and Community Development's Downtown Initiative 2010 series, over 60 planners, elected officials, and interested residents from around the commonwealth participated in a parking workshop. Participants learned how to better manage their parking supply, how to measure the actual demand for parking in their downtowns, and heard about innovative ideas being tested in Massachusetts and around the country.

The three presentations from the workshop are available below.

Jason Schreiber presentation

Matt Cuddy presentation

Melisa Tintocalis presentation

If you have questions, or would like more information, contact Jim Gallagher jgallagher@mapc.org  617-451-2770, ext. 2053.

Also, check out our parking toolkit.

South Shore Coalition Forum: New Parking Strategies for Town and Village Centers

On January 31, 2009, the South Shore Coalition (SSC) had a standing-room only crowd of planning board members, selectmen, town planners, business owners, developers, and consultants—over sixty participants from all over Eastern Massachusetts! Three expert speakers highlighted local and national best practices, case studies, and lessons learned. After the presentations, participants spent more than an hour in a lively discussion, sharing their local experiences and trading ideas about how to solve problems.

Download meeting materials and notes on the South Shore Coalition page.

Some important themes from the presentations and discussion:

• Zoning bylaws in most towns require a certain number of parking spaces for each use, based on some formula. Current parking requirements commonly act as a constraint on desirable economic and residential development in town and village centers.
• Because parking is a commodity, towns should consider mixing a regulatory approach with market-based approaches and pricing structures. More innovative and flexible approaches such as shared parking, leased spaces, valet services, shuttle services, and car-sharing can increase parking availability while allowing development. In order to make this work, towns need technical assistance to study existing conditions, in order to plan effectively.
• Before adding capacity through new lots or garages, towns need to manage their existing parking supply more efficiently. Pricing, signage, education, and enforcement are all important tools to do this.
• More towns should consider Parking Benefit Districts that collect parking revenue and reinvest it in capital projects that improve the district (e.g., signage, benches, traffic signals.) Participants agreed that more guidance and possibly enabling legislation are necessary to increase the use of this mechanism.
• Compliance with parking rules is an ongoing challenge that requires a combination of community support and education along with traditional enforcement such as ticketing. Union issues were identified as an important barrier to using enforcement officers not from the police department.
• Transit stations in town and village centers create a unique set of parking challenges that require their own set of solutions, possibly including pricing structures and “first mile” shuttle services for nearby residents.

For more information about the forum, please contact SSC Coordinator Tim Reardon at treardon@mapc.org.