Worcester Regional Research Office reports examine parking in the city

WORCESTER — A two-part study of city parking from the Worcester Regional Research Bureau examines how parking revenues have increased in the post-pandemic period and discusses the possible hidden costs of requiring minimum parking fees in new developments.

The Office of Scientific Research released two reports on parking within a week of each other: Feeding the Meter and Public Par(king).

Parking space status

The first report analyses revenue generated from city car parks since 2021, the growing popularity of paying for parking via the Passport app and the use of five city multi-storey car parks, five city surface car parks and two city-managed car parks.

There are a total of 3,313 parking spaces available in garages and 837 spaces in municipal or city-managed outdoor car parks, for a total of over 4,000 city-owned parking spaces.

The city owns the following surface parcels: 96 Green St., 40 Highland St., 40 Salem St., 51 Millbury St. and 85 Water St.

The city also manages the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority/Amtrak parking lot on Shrewsbury Street and the parking lot on Grafton Street.

There are five municipally owned garages in the city: Federal Plaza Garage at 570 Main St., Major Taylor Garage at 30 Major Taylor Blvd., Pearl-Elm Municipal Garage at 20 Pearl St., Union Station Garage at 225 Franklin St. and Worcester Common Garage at 3 Eaton Place.

The Research Office conducted a personal garage occupancy assessment and obtained additional data from the City regarding occupancy and transient revenue for the garages and the Francis J. McGrat Municipal Parking Lot at 40 Salem Street, owned by the Worcester Public Library.

The Major Taylor garage is the most used garage, both by monthly pass holders and daily parkers. The Federal Plaza garage is a close second. The Union Station garage had the lowest percentage of occupancy.

Longitudinal data showed that there was a decline in plot utilisation in January and July.

During the 26-month period covered by the report, the average number of users per hour across all workshops increased only slightly.

The report points out that if we assume that the majority of monthly pass holders are employees working in and around the city centre, this may mean that the city will not see an increase or decrease in the overall number of employees working in the city centre in the post-pandemic period.

While the office does not have complete data for the pre-pandemic period, the report assessed that there was likely a significant decline in use compared to the period before 2020, citing information from the city’s Department of Traffic and Mobility that showed that before the COVID-19 pandemic and its remodel, the Pearl-Elm garage was typically 80% occupied.

Paid on-street parking is available primarily in the city center and Canal District. In 2021, individual parking meters were replaced by a pay-per-plate model using centralized kiosks and mobile app zones that are also used in paved parking lots.

The two remaining parking lots on Lamartine Street and Madison Street are designated exclusively for Polar Park events.

Pay via app or kiosk

Passport has seen growth in usage since its adoption, with revenue generated by the app being higher in each month since its launch than in the same month the previous year. Kiosks are seeing slightly higher revenue than the app, but kiosk revenue has not increased year over year.

However, current parking data through 2024 suggests a possible slowdown in revenue growth via the Passport app, which the Research Bureau notes could be a sign of a halt in app adoption and a decline in people parking.

On-street parking limits are enforced through fines intended to free up spaces for other vehicles. Drivers who need more time can drive to another parking zone, but the report notes that the boundaries of the zones are not always clear, and different zones may be too far apart for some drivers to simply move across.

Average on-street parking times have remained stable since 2021, but year-on-year cars are spending more time in unattended surface lots that offer more flexibility in parking hours.

The increase in parking time could indicate more visitors to the city, the report said. Additionally, the two months that generate the most revenue from parking kiosks and apps are June and August. The Polar Park lots on Lamartine and Madison Streets are two of the top four lots for time spent parking. The other two lots are the MBTA and Grafton Street, where the commuter rail focuses.

Data from apps and kiosks show that the number of parking spaces decreases in July and autumn.

Parking cost

The second report focused on the development of parking in Worcester, mandatory minimum parking space requirements under the city’s zoning policy, and the costs to city residents of parking.

The report details how city planners have grappled with the parking problem since the 1920s, often wondering whether there are too many or too few parking spaces.

In 1971, Worcester was home to the world’s largest multi-storey car park. It was the former Worcester Center Galleria garage, which was the site of the current Worcester Common car park.

In many cities, parking for new buildings is dictated by mandatory minimums set by zoning to ensure that demand for parking does not exceed supply. In Worcester, a single-family home requires two parking spaces.

Several cities have initiated steps to lower or completely eliminate minimum parking requirements.

While Worcester has minimum requirements set out in the zoning code, the city does not have a uniform minimum parking requirement — the city center has no minimum parking requirement, and the commercial district that makes up the Canal District and Shrewsbury Street has lower minimum requirements.

The authors of the report argue that introducing minimum parking fees may involve costs that are not fully visible to residents.

The minimum number of parking spaces naturally limits the amount of space that developers have to build, including additional housing units; building plots and private garages becomes more expensive, and maintenance fees can spill over into the cost of maintaining the apartments.

The report cited Everett as an example of a city that reformed its minimum parking requirements to allow for exceptions, stating that this reform was one factor that contributed to Everett’s real estate boom compared to other cities in the Boston region.

To address these costs, the report says the city should carefully balance existing parking and vehicles with new development growth, any increases in new vehicle ownership and available Worcester Regional Transit Authority service. It could be possible to reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements.

The report also suggests other potential ways to reduce the costs of additional parking spaces, such as promoting shared parking agreements between estates and measures to inform residents about unused municipal garages.