Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Houston

“Elite Eight” Parking Madness: Louisville vs. Houston

NCAA basketball has nothing on the drama, the intrigue, the heartbreak of a competitive parking crater tournament. We're now into the "Elite Eight" round of Parking Madness, and today's winner will join Dallas in the Final Four. It's going to be a fierce competition between Louisville and Houston.

Louisville's downtown, you'll recall, looks like this:

This entry was submitted by Patrick Smith (@cityresearch on Twitter). Note that the grey boxes are buildings that haven't been uploaded yet to Google Earth. Local urbanists conservatively estimate that at least one-third of downtown Louisville's land area is occupied by parking.

Now southward to this anonymously-submitted Houston parking crater:

From what we can tell, spaces like this are the norm in Houston. Another submission from Houston was equally bad, but this one had a poetic twist: These particular parking lots surrounds an Exxon Mobil office building a building that houses Exxon Mobil employees. If that isn't poetic enough, there's also light rail running on Main Street, right down the middle of this parking crater.

So there you have it. Choose well. You have until 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday to decide the winner.

[poll id="39"]

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday’s Headlines Just Keep Trucking’ On

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is rolling back the Biden administration's mileage benchmarks for heavy trucks.

February 6, 2026

Government by AI? Trump Administration Plans to Write Regulations Using Artificial Intelligence

The Transportation Department, which oversees the safety of airplanes, cars and pipelines, plans to use Google Gemini to draft new regulations. “We don’t need the perfect rule,” said DOT’s top lawyer. “We want good enough.”

February 6, 2026

Thursday’s Headlines Are 2 Fast 2 Fare-Free

Fare-free bus systems are now in the U.S. DOT's crosshairs.

February 5, 2026
See all posts