IUsing the ITEParking

T he purpose of this article is to provide additional interim guidance to users of the second editio-n of ITE’s Parking Generation. 1 The report was first published in 1985 as a means for assembling national data on parking demand. The second edition was published in 1987. The ITE Parking Generation Committee (Technical Council Committee 6F-44) is working on the third edition, which is currently planned to be published in the next year. This article presents information on the interpretation of the data rer)orted in the second edition and on th~ application of the data to the planning and design of parking facilities. The potential uses of parking demand data will be defined in this article, and processes for applying the data to a variety of situations will be described. A potential new format for displaying the data is also introduced, providing an easier method of determining parking facility sizing requirements. Procedures for using the rates and equations in design-level parking demand estimation are also included. Because much of this material will be included in the third edition, the committee is seeking user comments on the concepts and approaches presented here [see “Request for Feedback” section]. parking spaces to provide. This decision has major cost implications, as well as impacts on how a particular site or area can be developed. The penalty for error can be large, in terms both of excess cost if parking demand is overestimated and of parking overflow (and associated impacts) if it is underestimated. The sizing of parking facilities is usually controlled directly by the property developer, but it is often controlled indirectly through the parking requirements in the city or county zoning ordinance. Thus , several potential applications of parking generation data can be envisioned: