Washington Downtown Parking Study
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Partnered with the Pamlico Business Resource Center on behalf of the City of Washington, NC., the Community and Regional Planning program’s Transportation Planning class (PLAN4075, instructor: Misun Hur) conducted a Downtown Washington Parking Study in Spring 2022. Washington, NC, is a small waterfront city located in eastern North Carolina. The city’s most recent parking study was in 2007, which does not reflect the recent parking demand due to increased tourism. At the project’s initiation, the community client was asked to gauge the parking demand and search for alternative parking solutions instead of adding pricy infrastructure. The study investigated 1) the existing public parking capacity in the study area, 2) the current parking demands, 3) the trip and parking behavior of downtown residents, merchants, government officers, and visitors, and 4) the parking solutions.
The study suggested 16 recommendation items for the city to implement individually or combined for efficiency and tremendous success. Recommendations include (no order):
- Signage on parking lots
- Maintenance of surface parking lot
- More public parking lots from the underutilized parcels the study identified
- designated parking for employees
- Road diet and complete street design on 2nd Street
- Street parking upgrade
- Wayfinding signage system across the downtown
- Implementing real-time mobile parking technology
- Alternative transportation connecting hotels
- Sidewalk upgrades outside Main Street
- Quality street lighting
- Improving walkability through urban design and citizen education
- Adding bicycle facilities
- Flexible paid parking
- Parking enforcement
- Adverse to a parking deck
Read the story in the city’s local newspaper, The Washington Daily News.
Read the full report here.
*Many stakeholders helped the study. Special thanks to all of them: Alphabetic order by last name: Brian Alligood (Beaufort County Manager), Domini Cunningham (Historic District Planner), Mike Dail (Director of Community and Cultural Services), Stacey Drakeford (Director of Police and Fire Services), Catherine Glover (Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce), Meg Howdy (Washington Harbor District Alliance), Keith Hudson (Pamlico Business Resources Center, study coordinator), Martyn Johnson (Executive Development, Beaufort County), Jonathan Russell (City Manager), Erin Ruyle (Washington Tourism Development Authority), and Adam Waters (Planning).