Washington Park’s main parking lot supports some of Oregon’s most visited destinations, including the Oregon Zoo, World Forestry Center, Hoyt Arboretum, and nearby gardens. On busy days, parking demand regularly exceeds available supply, creating congestion, confusion, and difficulty finding unused spaces even when capacity remains elsewhere in the system.
In 2014, our team worked with the Washington Park Transportation Management Association to develop the park’s first comprehensive parking and circulation management strategy for the main lot. The work focused on bringing structure and predictability to a large, complex parking area that had previously functioned as a single undifferentiated space. Recommendations included reorganizing traffic flow, clarifying drop-off and circulation patterns, and introducing a simple but effective system for naming and signing subareas of the lot.
A central outcome of the study was the creation of Lots A, B, and C, along with further subdivision by zones and rows. This structure made it easier for visitors to locate available spaces, remember where they parked, and follow instructions from parking staff on busy days. The study also established a framework for activating satellite parking lots and shuttle service during peak periods, using real-time vehicle counts and demand thresholds to guide when overflow facilities should come online.
Together, these strategies improved parking utilization, reduced unnecessary circulation, and laid the groundwork for ongoing parking management at Washington Park. Many of the organizational and operational concepts developed through this work continue to shape how the park manages parking during its busiest periods.
Brian Davis led this work while in a previous position.