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It's Really a Numbers Game
When you hear someone at MIT say "seventy-seven", you immediately think of 77 Massachusetts Avenue, which is considered the main entrance to MIT. If you hear "ten two-fifty" you may remember there is a large lecture hall in Building 10, Room 250. What if someone said "three sixty four point four"? This is a little more obscure, but most people that have been around the Institute for a long time will know that it takes 364.4 smoots to cross the Harvard Bridge. Try this one: does the number 4,814 mean anything?
Most likely it means absolutely nothing to you, but to me it is as important as any other MIT number. Four thousand eight hundred and fourteen are the number of campus parking spaces the City of Cambridge permits MIT to have. In 1994, the City issued a "Determination of Exclusion" that acknowledged MIT's existing inventory of 4,814 parking spaces. In 1992, the City enacted a "Parking Freeze" that prohibited the creation of any new parking spaces in the city. The Determination of Exclusion basically grandfathered existing parking space inventories from future regulatory processes. Should the need arise in the future, MIT can apply to the city for additional parking spaces above the 4,814 threshold, but the approval process would require a detailed Parking and Transportation Demand Management Plan be submitted to the city for review and approval.
Another constraint on parking at MIT is as a result of the Federal Clean Air Act of 1973. MIT can provide parking to no more than 36 percent of its commuting population. While we are entitled to use 4,814 parking spaces under the Determination of Exclusion, only 3,711 were allotted for commuter use. The result of these two external constraints is that once MIT's commuter population rises above 10,308, the number of available commuter parking spaces remains constant at 3,711. As mentioned earlier, MIT can apply to the City for additional parking spaces, but this process requires regulatory review and approval is usually only granted with conditions; the likelihood of approval is tied to the scope, location, and traffic impact of the project. Recent history has shown that the City will approve new parking spaces on the condition that development includes alternative transportation incentives as well. These types of conditions could place permanent financial obligations on the Institute as part of each development project. Of its own volition, MIT is a leader in promoting and supporting alternative methods of commuting – without having to be prodded.
But this raises a larger issue: If MIT did receive the necessary approvals to add (or relocate existing supply) parking spaces to our inventory, could we afford them? It is fair to say that all surface parking lots are future development sites for buildings or landscape improvements. A parking lot is not the best use of land in this part of Cambridge, especially on this campus. It is in MIT's best interest to consolidate the parking spaces from the various surface lots, and build new parking garages. A recent city zoning change now includes the floor space of above ground parking garages as part of the amount of space that can be developed. Below grade parking garages do not count against the amount of space that can be developed. MIT recognizes the long-term benefit of locating new parking below grade, but the associated costs and hurdles are prohibitive. Preliminary reports from the Stata construction project place the annual debt service of building one underground parking space at over $1,800, while the current annual fee that MIT charges for parking is $420.
Speaking of construction, what happens when an existing surface parking facility is retired in favor of a building? When we have less than our full complement of commuter parking spaces (3,711) how do we allocate them? Well, that is what is happening right now. Currently we have 655 commuter spaces unavailable due to various construction projects on campus. The Parking and Transportation Office allocates the number of available parking spaces to all departments, labs, and centers each fall. The allocation process takes into account the aggregate headcount, commuting distance, and job classifications for each department to produce an allocation of parking spaces. These allocations are assigned to the nearest parking facilities for each department. As the number of available parking spaces decreases, so do the number of allocations issued to the departments. Instead of only particular departments bearing the brunt, we spread the "pain" across the Institute to all departments.
However, the speed in which MIT builds replacement parking has not kept pace with the projects that have supplanted parking supply. Stata Center and the 70 Pacific Street residence are the only projects in construction now that have a parking component. Future projects, such as the Brain and Cognitive Science building and the Sloan School development, will both permanently displace parking supply for construction. The Sloan project will provide parking replacement, but only after completion of construction. Future temporary reductions of on-campus parking supply can be expected as part of these building projects.
To solve this problem, we are currently investigating options to provide as many parking spaces on campus as possible. Spaces are available in the commercial market at rates of $175 to $235 per month. The cost to the Institute and the proximity to campus diminish the appeal of this option. There are also ideas to "fast-track" a parking-only project to provide the replacement parking spaces before these construction projects remove parking supply. More work has to be done in this regard to identify the viable options for maintaining as much parking supply as possible.
But we really don't want you to drive…
Some people just have to drive to work, whether it is due to outside commitments, daycare issues, lack of accessible mass transit, or irregular work schedules. For those people we try to provide convenient and affordable parking on campus. For the rest of the community we are trying to provide reasonable alternatives to driving. The Parking and Transportation Office issues over 50,000 subsidized MBTA passes a year. Most participants in this program enjoy a 50 percent subsidy from MIT on the cost of a pass. Employees also have the benefit of having their portion of the fee payroll deducted on a pre-tax basis.
Another way we try to encourage people not to drive is to provide shuttles around campus. The Tech Shuttle is a daytime service that runs between Sloan and Westgate with stops in between. This service runs from 7am to 7pm weekdays, and accommodates over 200,000 passengers per year.
Students and employees can take advantage of the Saferide service that runs each night. There are four routes that connect the campus with Cambridge and Boston, as well as student residences. This service runs seven days a week and provides over 180,000 rides per year.
There are existing shuttles to Lincoln Laboratories, Bates, Wellesley College, and the Longwood Medical area from campus. These shuttles are provided by the different entities and are not managed by the Parking and Transportation Office. A new shuttle will be starting in January that will link the MIT campus to North Station. Commuters taking the commuter rail from the north of Boston previously did not have a direct connection to MIT after arriving at North Station. Riders would have to transfer to the Green or Orange line and then transfer to the Red line to get to campus. This shuttle makes commuter rail more attractive to those commuting to MIT from north of Boston.
The Parking and Transportation Office also offers discounts on Carpool and Vanpool parking. Carpools are eligible to receive reserved parking spaces in high demand parking areas as an added incentive. The office also hosts two short-term rental cars from Zipcars. Zipcars is a company that provides members access to cars without the burden of owning one. Zipcar members can use any car in the Zipcar fleet throughout greater Boston and Cambridge. MIT employees and graduate students are eligible for discounted rates at enrollment.
This is a very exciting time to be at MIT (not to mention noisy, dusty, bumpy, etc.) as the campus evolves. There are beautiful new buildings going up all around us. Most people look at the construction and think how wonderful the campus and buildings will look when they are finished. I think, "Where are they all going to park?"
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