Palo Alto staff outlines parking data plan, new systems and pricing options for downtown

The Planning and Transportation Commission heard a transportation data update on May 28 from Office of Transportation staff about parking patterns on University Avenue and downtown garages, planned technology upgrades and potential pricing changes.

Transportation staff said the city will publish more regular parking data and has contracts and equipment coming online that staff expect will improve monitoring and wayfinding. "The real takeaways I wanted to point out from the data in front of you, is that there really has been a change, but some of the basic trends in the in the University Avenue garages and lots are still the same," said Mister Baird, Office of Transportation staff. He told the commission the city will deploy automated parking guidance systems (APGS) in its four largest garages soon and is consolidating permit and citation management under a single vendor to enable better reporting.

Why it matters: commissioners said better timely data and clearer signage would reduce circling and congestion downtown and help preserve residential streets. Staff framed the technical work as preparatory to policy decisions — including possible curb pricing or mobile payment — that should be based on ongoing automated counts rather than one-off surveys.

What staff presented and planned - Point-in-time counts: Staff shared contracted midday occupancy counts (spring/fall) and said those are expensive to run and that some…