Carl Walker Parking Consultants Downtown Parking and mobility Management Plan In June 2009, a project team of Carl Walker, Inc. and UrbanTrans Consultants was selected by the City of Wichita, Sedgwick County, and SMG to complete a downtown parking and mobility management plan for downtown Wichita. The primary purpose of this study is to determine operational and management-related alternatives and recommendations that will improve parking in downtown Wichita. The scope of services for this project consists of four primary tasks:
Task Two of the project included the development of downtown parking and mobility management guiding principles. A set of draft guiding principles was reviewed with designated downtown stakeholders in August 2009. The final two phases of the project considered parking management alternatives to address current and future operations/management needs, as well as improve the utilization, efficiency, and effectiveness of existing parking resources. The full plan is available for download, as well as supplemental appendices Walker Parking Consultants Parking and Mobility Master Plan for Downtown Wichita As Wichita looks forward to completing the arena and further development, it is important to put into place a parking management system to oversee and provide coordination and monitoring of its parking assets. Walker Parking Consultants came to Wichita in 2007 to do a full Parking and Mobility Master Plan for downtown Wichita. The plan recommended many areas that could use improvements to better serve the downtown district. It was recommended that the city establish the Wichita Parking and Transportation Department (WPTD) to manage parking operations through an auxiliary enterprise fund separate from the municipality’s general fund. Priority of the department will be to gather the various parking pieces under their leadership and to develop the necessary marketing tools to educate the masses on parking in Wichita. The establishment of a comprehensive wayfinding and signage program was suggested to guide visitors in and around downtown, including parking. Coordination between private lot owners around the arena should begin to increase the number of known public parking areas for events. Further encouragement was given in establishing a parking partnership program to coordinate public parking in the future. Finally, coordination of remote parking with shuttles well in advance of the arena completion was suggested. This can begin to take shape with the new parking director and arena management team. Based on the analysis, there will only be a handful of events requiring remote parking requiring shuttles. These events are limited to large events and medium events occurring on a weekday day. To view the full plan, please click here.
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