If you live in or commute to Charleston, you likely know about the challenges that often come with finding a place to park. But the Parking Reform Network (PRN), a national nonprofit formed to “educate the public about the impact of parking policy” recently updated its city maps to include Charleston — and it found 23% of downtown Charleston that is zoned as a business or mixed-use district is used for parking. In other words, nearly one-fourth of the surface area within the map’s focus region is a parking lot.
This is a much more significant proportion than New York City, for example, the country’s least car-centric urbanized locale, which, based on its PRN map, boasts less than 0.5% of parking-devoted surface area.
And yet Charleston still measures below the average of 26% of parking lot space in metropolitan areas nationwide. The United States, in fact, has a total parking area that, if combined, would span the states of Rhode Island and Delaware — and then some.
“If you are looking at cities under a million — an urbanized area like Charleston — [the parking surface area] is going to be more like 29%,” said Thomas Carpenito, a New York City-based project manager at PRN. He added that part of the reason for Charleston’s comparatively low percentage is the desirability of the area and its high financial value.
What’s the deal with Charleston’s parking?
With 23% of surface area devoted to sitting vehicles, Charleston’s parking qualms may not be due to a lack of spots as much as not knowing where to look. A parking study conducted in 2019 by the city of Charleston concluded that downtown, “none of the parking was more than about 75% occupied at any given time,” slightly below what Carpenito said was a good parking utilization rate of 85%. The study noted even though some highly populated districts did not always have spots available, some could be found a few blocks over in each direction.
There’s also the issue of cost. The city in 2017 saw an extreme example of this phenomenon, when a spot in a prime peninsula location was listed for nearly $75,000 to prospective buyers. The city’s 2018 decision to change metered parking from $1 to $2 per hour and to extend paid hours sparked backlash from some commuters, especially downtown workers, against costs they felt were unreasonable.
Carpenito said while “there’s a lot of consensus that parking should be free,” not charging vehicle owners for a spot can come with negative repercussions. People would drive downtown much more often, he explained, if they could freely park, which would mean that parking lots might exceed capacity — and some wouldn’t be able to find parking at all. “That’s a way bigger barrier to people coming [downtown] than the prices [of parking spots] themselves.”
Mass transit is lacking
In large cities, a pattern tends to exist: a 2014 Streetblog survey said that people will use more public transportation as parking prices get higher.
But in smaller metro areas like Charleston, the study added, “the correlation between parking costs and transit ridership was not statistically significant,” hypothesizing causes such as lack of affordable public transit and widespread development.
Charleston seems to be a victim to these issues; it’s labeled a “car-dependent city” by WalkScore with a public transit score of 24 out of 100. This places the city in the category of least robust public transportation. In other words, the site states, “it is possible to get on a bus.”
The city’s bus system, CARTA, provides free transit to some parts of downtown. But month-long passes are $57, which can be a cost barrier.
What’s more, transit deserts — where public transportation is in high demand but supply is low or doesn’t exist at all — are prevalent in many Lowcountry corridors, especially those outside of the downtown area where residents might not have access to or finances for a personal vehicle.
Absence of public transit in an area that’s also a food desert — what the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines as “a low-income tract where a substantial number … of residents does not have easy access to a supermarket or large grocery store” — can make meeting basic dietary needs nearly impossible.
Moving forward
There’s an environmental price of too much parking. While the county requires 30% of parking surface area to be “pervious,” meaning permeable by water — like gravel, for example — the other 70% can be impervious material, such as concrete and asphalt, which can exacerbate the already widespread issue of flooding in Charleston.
If Charleston wants to move in the direction of fewer parking lots, Carpenito said, the city has got to strengthen its mass transit system. “There are really only a handful of cities in [Charleston’s] population area that even go below 20% [of parking lot surface area], and they have really robust public transport.”
Mass transit can also decrease the number of vehicles on the road. Charleston, in recent years, has been reported as one of the most dangerous places in the country for drivers.
Public transportation alone, however, won’t solve the problem: It goes hand-in-hand with waiving previously passed parking space requirements, Carpenito added. Dismantling these laws would allow a parking garage that’s never full to sell some of its parking spots to the retail sector, allowing for higher lot utilization rates and lower parking surface area, he noted.
So adjustments such as eliminating business parking minimums are in Charleston’s best interest, Carpenito told the Charleston City Paper: “You’re able to have more economic activity in your downtown because you’re able to devote less of it to parking structures.”
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