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America has 2 billion parking spaces and they’re ruining cities


Ask the typical person how many parking spaces are available in most cities, and their answer will likely be “not enough”. And it’s easy to see why: When you get used to each Walmart having 1,000 parking space for customers, it’s frustrating not being able to park your car right in front of the restaurant you’re trying to eat. But just because it might not be like cities have enough parking space, that doesn’t mean it’s actually the case.

In case you lost it:

The The Wall Street Journal report that thing, While free street parking can fill up quickly, off-street garages are rarely full. However, because Americans are so used to not having to pay for parking, they would rather drive around to find an empty spot on the road than save time and pay to park. In fact, we have more parking spaces than we need and the number of people surrounding the property is increasing unnecessarily. congestion.

According to Donald Shoup, an urban planner and pioneering parking researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, the government doesn’t track parking numbers. But talk to WSJ, he estimates that at the low end, the United States has at least 700 million parking spaces, and on premium, estimated like 2 billion. That works out to somewhere between 2.5 and 7.0 parking spaces per vehicle registered in the US.

Thankfully, cities across the country are starting to realize they don’t need nearly as much parking as they have. Parking garages are being replaced with desperately needed housing, and some municipalities are getting rid of parking minimums that drive up the cost of housing. It’s not just big cities such as New York City or San Francisco, either. Smaller cities such as Norman, Oklahoma and Bend, Oregon are doing the same thing.

“The Dutch have reclaimed land from the sea, and I think we can reclaim land from parking,” Shoup told The Wall Street Journal.

In Charlotte, the city council recently authorized a developer to build an apartment complex with no parking at all. That means more units for residents to live in and lower construction costs, which the developer says will save residents $250 per month.

Total WSJ The post is quite long, but it’s also really well done. You can read it all here.

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