Downtown Carrboro has over 3,600 parking spaces. The Town owns roughly 700 public spaces, and this week the town released plans to begin charging for parking in those public spaces.
The remaining 79% of downtown parking spaces (around 2,900 spaces) are held by private businesses, such as Carr Mill Mall. Nothing about those private parking spaces is changing as part of this plan.
Why is Carrboro planning to charge for parking in public spaces? (Short Version)
Two separate parking studies (in 2017 and 2022) have found that there are many people parking in public lots downtown for 6 or more hours. Some of them then take the J or CW bus to campus and spend no money downtown. In other cases, downtown employees wind up parking in spaces close to their employer, and inadvertently make it harder for customers to reach their business. These long stays in parking spaces reduce traffic for downtown businesses by locking up parking spaces for most of the day.
We’re also a community that has adopted a Comprehensive Plan called Carrboro Connects that has Climate Action as one of its two pillars. Parking pricing is one of the proven incentives to encourage individuals to consider using public transportation, biking, walking, or carpooling to make a trip instead of driving alone, and this helps reduce carbon emissions in our community.
What are the details of the proposal?
The current plan presumes:
- Charging for parking in all publicly owned spaces downtown except for designated handicapped parking spaces.
- The first 30 minutes in any space would be free so that pop-in, pop-out visits which still turn over spaces quickly would cost nothing.
- The standard hourly cost would be $1.50 per hour
- The maximum parking time allowed would be two hours
- Signs will be displayed at the entrance and within each designated paid parking lot or series of on-street parking spaces, indicating this is a Paid Parking Lot/Space (as applicable), maximum parking duration, paid parking rate, and payment instructions.
- Discounts of fifty (50) percent will be provided to low-income Carrboro residents who meet certain criteria
- Signs will be displayed at the entrance and within each designated paid parking lot or series of on-street parking spaces, indicating this is a Paid Parking Lot/Space (as applicable), maximum parking duration, paid parking rate, and payment instructions.
- Discounts of fifty (50) percent will be provided to low-income Carrboro residents who meet certain criteria
- Fines for violations will be $20 for the first violation and $50 for subsequent violations
Registration and/or payment for parking spaces shall be required immediately upon parking via one of the following methods:
- Mobile App: download and utilize the designated mobile app for the Town of Carrboro paid parking system; or
- Text Messaging: send a text message to the designated phone number with the unique identifier displayed on the parking space signage; or
- Phone: call the designated phone number and follow the automated instructions to pay for parking using a credit or debit card.
Will people still be able to come to downtown Carrboro without paying to park?
YES!
- Changing the time of a trip to downtown. While not currently listed as part of the proposal, it’s likely that the parking charges will be active for PART BUT NOT ALL OF THE DAY. So if parking charges are in place from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and you come downtown at 6:01 PM, you can park in any public lot for free.
- Parking in one of the private lots downtown that will still be free. Remember, 79% of parking in downtown Carrboro will still be free! If you park in the lot for Carr Mill Mall, for Grey Squirrel/Amante Pizza/Cats Cradle, those spaces will still be free. But be aware that some businesses downtown, particularly Carr Mill, engage in aggressive towing if you park on their lot and go to another business.
- Make a short visit! If you need to use a public space to pick up take-out from Spotted Dog, just park for less than 30 minutes, and the visit is free!
- If Sundays are free (not clear yet, to be determined by Town Council), park downtown on Sunday!
- Choose another transportation mode! The Chapel Hill Transit J Route and CW Route provide all day service to downtown Carrboro, and there is peak hour service on the Chapel Hill Transit F Route and the GoTriangle 405 Route. Biking may also work for those who live within 2 to 3 miles of downtown.
Patrick, you’re a parking nerd. Is there anything you would change about this plan?
Largely, this plan is well-conceived, and the Town deserves credit for establishing an equitable parking charge component for low-income residents. This is what walking the talk on equity looks like.
But I propose two key adjustments to the plan.
Adjustment A: Allow up to Four Hours of Parking With Higher Costs Per Hour
Currently, the planned ordinance has a fee structure that appears to be:
| Current Carrboro Parking Charge Plan | |
| 0 to 30 Minutes | FREE |
| 31 to 60 Minutes | $1.50 total |
| 61 to 120 Minutes | $3.00 total |
| More than 120 Minutes | Violation & Fine – $20 |
I propose the following as an alternative:
| Alternative Carrboro Parking Charge Plan | |
| 0 to 30 Minutes | FREE |
| 31 to 60 Minutes | $1.50 total |
| 61 to 120 Minutes | $3.00 total |
| 121 to 180 Minutes | $6.00 total |
| 181 to 240 Minutes | $14.00 total |
| More than 240 Minutes | Violation & Fine – $20 |
In the Alternative table, hour 1 and hour 2 both cost $1.50 for each hour. So if you stay under two hours, you pay $3.00. But if you stay longer, your impact to downtown businesses by not turning over the space increases, and so your cost for hour 3 is $3.00 just for that hour. And if you stay for hour 4, that one hour costs another $8.00, bringing the total cost for 181 to 240 minutes of parking to $14.00.
This gives people more flexibility in how they spend time downtown without triggering a $20 ticket quickly, but uses pricing to discourage park and ride to campus and employee parking in public spaces.
Adjustment B: Use The Alternate Pricing for Lots in the Core of Downtown, But Discount the Price of Less Convenient “Tier 2” Lots
Several lots that are little further away from the core of downtown may be able to be priced at a lower rate to reflect that they are a longer walk and less convenient from most downtown activities. This “Tier 2” of lots could include:
- Town Hall Lots
- Laurel Ave Lots
- Community Worx Lot
- Weaver St Lot
- Fitch Warehouse Lot
In Tier 2 lots, parking would cost 2/3rds of what it costs in CORE lots. ($1.00 per hour for the first two hours, and the same discount in hours 3 and 4 in the Alternative Charge Plan above)
The map below shows the proposed CORE lots in green dots and the proposed TIER 2 lots in yellow.
I think there are some other questions about the Tier 2 lots that include – do we even need to charge in them on Saturdays? Other than the Farmers Market hours, those lots are very lightly used on weekends except during special events. Do we charge for Town Hall lots like they are Core lots during the Farmers’ Market, then not charge afterwards?
There’s always a balance between tuning parking policy as closely as possible to demand at various times of day, and having a system that is easy to understand. So maybe the CORE lots charge Monday through Saturday and the Tier 2 lots charge Monday through Friday. Fortunately we have a Town Council to help us work through these questions!
Is there anything else we need to be thinking about?
Yes. Employee access to downtown, in which parking is one of several strategies to reduce the chance that employees are negatively affected financially by the changes. Here are a few things worth thinking about:
- Raleigh has subsidized e-bike purchases for residents. Can we do the same for downtown employees earning less than $20 per hour?
- GoTriangle is returning fares to the 405 in July 2024. Can the town use some of the parking revenue to partially subsidize monthly GoTriangle passes for downtown employees?
- South Green is currently not fully leased out. There is some parking capacity that the Town may be able to lease for town employees who could park there and then either walk up to downtown or take the J bus from the side of the roundabout.
- It’s also worth considering if employee permits could be made available for downtown properties that have under 50 employees. Larger employers will have greater ability to solve for their employees, so focusing our efforts here could help. At the same time, it’s a balance – we want to make sure that as we issue permits for workers, it does not overwhelm capacity and fill lots. Maybe some of the Tier 2 lots could be prioritized for downtown workers?
Anyway – there’s some thinking to do here.
Why is Carrboro planning to charge for parking in public spaces? (Long, Detailed Version)
1. A downtown business district thrives on ACCESS – people being able to get to the business district to spend money. Some people walk downtown, others bike, others take the bus, and others drive and park.
2. When people who spend little or no money per hour spent downtown occupy access resources (bike racks, seats on buses, parking spaces) in ways that make it HARDER for shoppers who sustain the district financially to access downtown and spend money, it hurts local businesses and downtown vitality.
3. There are two populations of people whose spending per hour parked downtown is very low or zero: downtown employees, and stealth park-and-riders to UNC, who could be students or employees.
4. The largest employer in downtown, Carr Mill, has significant parking capacity to accommodate most or even all of its employees. Carr Mill practices extreme vigilance in preventing its employees from parking in the primary Carr Mill lots adjacent to WSM, Venable, CVS, Harris Teeter, etc. (Seriously, ask the WSM cashiers. Carr Mill has towed WSM employees with 15-20 years of service!)
5. At the same time, Carr Mill practices ZERO vigilance in encouraging its employees to use the lot that is free to them. People being people, having a choice between a free short walk to work and a free longer walk to work, choose the shorter walk from the Armadillo lot, etc. This behavior reduces the availability of an access resource (public parking spaces where you don’t get towed) to shoppers who sustain the business district.
6. While Carr Mill is the biggest issue here due to the number of employees onsite and their mismanagement of their own parking facilities, other downtown employees do the same. I’ve seen Century Center employees park across the street and walk in with brown bag lunches. That’s a town employee taking up a parking space for 8 hours, eating at their desk, and removing 8 hours of parking access in one of the best located lots in town.
7. UNC students and employees who have a choice of paying to park at Chapel Hill Transit lots on the edge of the two towns and taking longer bus rides to campus choose to drive to downtown Carrboro, pay nothing to park, and take a shorter J bus ride to campus, also removing parking spaces from the shoppers who sustain the business district.
8. While making rational choices for themselves, downtown employees and UNC students/staff are imposing costs on downtown businesses by reducing ACCESS for their customers.
9. Charging for public lots over a certain number of minutes will shift Carr Mill employees who work longer shifts to the Carr Mill lot, especially at the Yaggy/Armadillo Grill lot. Would you walk one block further to save $8 to $20 per day? Most anyone would.
10. What about UNC students? Park and ride to campus on the CM bus is still a pretty quick trip, but it’s $2/day or $20/month from the University Lake/Jones Ferry park and ride. But $2/day is much cheaper than $1.50/hour. So yes, people will make that switch. Addressing this stealth park-and-ride to campus behavior is important. I see calls from individuals opposed to parking pricing say that we should just do more to work with downtown businesses. First, the Town has tried, for over a decade, to do this, and not much has changed. But more importantly, as long as public parking is free, downtown Carrboro will remain the cheapest and best park and ride to the UNC Campus.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, on climate – we’re about to enter several days under a deadly HEAT DOME all across the east coast, and we have a forecast for the most active hurricane season ever. I was going to write something here but Elyse Keefe already made the perfect comment on this topic the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chat Facebook group, so read what she has to say:
Take the Town Survey and Share Your Thoughts
In closing, the Town has a survey page where you can provide input here:
https://www.carrboronc.gov/3008/Paid-Public-Parking-Ordinance
Share your views, particularly on things like hours and days of the week when the charge should be in place, and if you think it’s better to have one price everywhere for simplicity, or if having two or more tiers to give people who are willing to walk further lower parking costs is more valuable.