This past summer I left my home state of Pennsylvania to attend the University of Oregon in pursuit of a Master’s of Community and Regional Planning (MCRP). After obtaining a B.S. in Geoscience and a B.A. in Geography, graduate school is providing me the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge to help rural communities blend policies that help develop their economy, while simultaneously working to preserve the natural environment. I’m particularly interested in developing policies that recognize the connection of terrestrial and aquatic environments within watersheds, and how people interact and rely upon these natural systems.

With one term finished in my graduate education I am now embarking on a new project with the city of Ashland, located in Southern Oregon, through the UO’s Community Service Center. I will be working in a team with four other first year graduate students over the next six months, examining Ashland’s downtown parking management and multi modal transit strategies. As a planning student, I’m excited to apply my education and work with community leaders in identifying different policy alternatives.

Ashland is a vibrant city with just over 20,000 residents that hosts the Oregon Shakespeare Festival every summer, which draws 400,000 visitors. This poses a unique problem for parking management in the downtown area.

Our team is energized about this project and we’re eager to have the opportunity to gain professional experience in our first year of graduate school. We recognize that there are challenges associated with managing a downtown parking program. On one hand, parking is vital to downtown economies, while on the other hand automobile-dependent transportation is often subsidized by incentives such as free parking in downtown areas. Americans have become increasingly reliant on automobiles for transportation, and allowing free parking encourages people to drive to their destinations. This over reliance on the automobile has contributed to obesity, overconsumption of fossil fuels and has had a negative impact the environment.

Another reason we’re excited about this project is the opportunity to research new and innovative ways cities around the country are managing parking and look at alternative transportation options viable for Ashland. One way to manage downtown parking is to reduce the number of cars travelling there by encouraging carpooling, biking, walking and taking the bus.

Most of all, we are excited to work with such an engaged and active community that has identified issues important to them, and are eager to develop solutions. We look forward to the opportunity to suggest new parking management policies that promote multi modal transportation options as well as accommodate the residents and visitors of Ashland.

Stay tuned for more to come on this project. . . .

About the Author:  Eli Tome is a first year MCRP student trying to find the time to balance a busy graduate student schedule and still have time to play in the mountains on the weekends. I also work as a Geographic Information Systems GTF for the Social Sciences Instructional Labs on campus.