Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

Lowering Parking Minimums Is Nowhere Close to a “War on Cars”

The famed "War on Cars" -- who among us hasn't heard this tired hyperbole tossed around with wild abandon? Want to install a bike lane? Gasp! "War on cars!" Speeding cameras in school zones? "War on cars!!" Raise tolls to cover the huge cost of roads? "WAR ON CARS!!!"

false

You know how it goes. Paul Barter at Reinventing Parking was reflecting on this rhetoric recently after a proposal to ease parking minimums in Santa Monica elicited the predictable response. Barter says calling policies like these a "war on cars" is akin to saying women's early struggles for voting rights were "anti-men" because "it involves ignoring a huge edifice of policies that are actually skewed in the other direction."

Slightly easing a policy that FORCES excessive parking into the landscape is a far cry from actually restraining car use or ownership. Please get this straight. Today's conventional parking policies are not mode neutral. 

They are not agnostic about people's mobility choices. They are not a natural expression of individuals' preferences about our transport systems or our towns and cities.

In fact, the American-style conventional parking policies that have spread around the world are just about as far from mode neutral as they could possibly be. These policies don't just acquiesce to people's car preferences. They shape those preferences. They effectively pull people into cars and reshape the landscape to keep them there.

The process of setting parking requirements makes arbitrary but self-fulfilling prophecies about how many people will own and use cars in every single building far into the future The process often even aims to make enough room for the busiest time of the busiest day of the year. The procedure generally assumes that all this parking will be free-of-charge to the motorists.

This prompts parking to be bundled with all other real estate, effectively forcing private actors (including you and me) to cross-subsidise car ownership and car use. So most new developments being built around the world continue to include much more parking than we need or than the actual users would willingly pay for.

Speaking of the "war on cars," elsewhere on the Network today, West North reports that, in response to a plan that will reduce parking 0.2 percent in D.C.'s Downtown and Golden Triangle areas, the local AAA complained that "the bike lanes have taken up all the parking spaces.” Bike Denver explains the impressive strides the Mile High City has made in its commitment to become a multi-modal city. And Stop and Move wonders what Fresno could learn from Oklahoma City.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday Video: The London Neighborhood Where Bikes Outnumber Cars

...and how they got to that impressive milestone.

July 11, 2025

Friday’s Headlines Battle Galactus

Like the Marvel supervillain, U.S. interstate highway system seems to eat up everything in his path.

July 11, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: Localities Subsidize the State DOT

Adie Tomer of Brookings on how to improve regional coordination around infrastructure.

July 10, 2025

Five of the Ugliest Transportation Policies In the ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill

Here's a rundown of some of the transportation provisions in the Republicans' reconciliation package, and what they might mean for your community.

July 10, 2025

Viva La Thursday’s Headlines

Why is French transit ridership up 10 percent since before the pandemic, while American transit ridership is down 23 percent?

July 10, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines Are Bigger and Beautiful-er

There's a lot of bad news in the Big Beautiful Bill — but it also may have helped kill a major highway expansion in Oregon.

July 9, 2025
See all posts