City offers innovative parking solutions

The arrival of thousands of visitors to Eugene creates a challenge to enforcing parking regulations in the South University Neighborhood. A City-issued parking ticket can sour the event experience for visitors while a lack of issued tickets can cause significant frustrations for neighborhood residents. To address this challenge for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, the City partnered with the University of Oregon, South University Neighborhood Association, and TrackTown USA on a solution.

A temporary event parking district and event fee of $25 was created in the South University Neighborhood area for the 2024 Olympic Trials. The temporary event parking district provides an alternative to attendees receiving parking tickets while providing a benefit to the neighborhood after the event. Revenue from the parking permit sales will be used to fund a neighborhood directed project. The temporary event parking district was piloted for the 2021 Olympic Trials and implemented in 2022 for the World Championships where it generated over $31,000 for the neighborhood directed project.

To ensure the temporary signage was cost effective, sustainable and in alignment with neighborhood aesthetics, the City's Parking Program and Waste Prevention Program collaborated with the South University Neighborhood Association, Viking Textile Maker Hub, a local industrial sewist training program, and SparkLab, a youth maker space, to create durable, upcycled parking sign covers out of discarded vinyl banners collected from local businesses and organizations for the 2022 event. Transforming used vinyl banners instead of disposing of them extends the material's lifecycle and preserves water, energy, and other resources while helping bring new life to something that would otherwise become trash. These reusable parking sign covers will ensure that visitors attending the 2024 Olympic Trials and future large events on UO's campus understand event parking rules while also demonstrating our community's values around sustainability, reuse, and recycling.

Additionally, this work is aligned with the City's broad effort toward Strategic Plan goals working to address urgent community needs to advance climate action and community resilience and to improve support for the local business environment.

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