Editorial: The magic parking number is not so magic

The OSU-Cascades campus parking plan preaches a new normal: don’t use a car.

It’s a nice idea. Biking and walking ooze healthiness. People who carpool or take the bus might just get ambushed with hugs from the staff at Commute Options.

Prickliness comes quick, though, when you encounter the safety and congestion issues on the roads right next to the campus. The preachers at the school and from the city say keep faith in the plan. They say at the magic number, they will swoop in and fix anything broken.

What is this magic number? They peg it at 86 percent parking utilization.

In the world of parking gurus, 85 percent parking occurs when parking hits the Goldilocks level — it’s just right. It’s when 85 percent of the available curbside parking spaces are occupied. The theory is that above 85 percent, people spend a lot of time cruising around looking for a space. And above 85 percent, people feel the need to keep a space because they might not find another.

But just look at how the school and the city apply the magic 85. Peek at the highlighted streets on the map above. It’s not only the streets right near the campus that have to consistently pass 85 percent before anything more is done. Some of the streets are far from campus. And it could be years of growth and years of congestion and years of safety problems before the 85 percent threshold is passed.

The parking dream for the campus is something special and also especially wrong. The school and the city should start now on solutions.