PAWTUCKET DOWNTOWN DESIGN PLAN FINAL ... - VHB.com

INTRODUCTION
PUBLIC PARKING MANAGEMENT
The PDDP team reviewed existing parking surveys and reports, specifically: the
Parking Supply Demand Study (2005), the Downtown Parking Study (2000)
and Parking in Downtown Pawtucket (1987). The conditions of downtown
parking have changed little in the past decades as the population and business
development of the city has remained steady. Residential development has
improved in the last ten years, but all new built development required ample
deeded spaces, so this did not impact the larger commercial picture.
The current downtown parking condition has been shaped by a typical pattern
of automobile priority in a historic commercial core: streets have been widened,
zoning required businesses to offer parking spaces on private property which
resulted in older buildings to be removed for surface lots, and little public
investment in a parking system was required. The high visibility and surface
area of the current public and private lot arrangement leaves the downtown
visually scarred and ambiguous lines between pedestrian and automobile
space. The high number of open lots allows the automobile to intrude even
into the interior of the block by crossing and lining sidewalks further eroding the
clear protocol of pedestrian prioritized space.
The PDDP Parking Project “P’arking, is uses a set of infrastructural and
program systems to help better define the parking conditions.
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