Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In

Streetsblog's march through America's urban parking wastelands continues with the third head-to-head contest in our Parking Madness tournament.

Results are in from the first match, where Houston's stadium/convention center cluster beat out Jacksonville's failed redevelopment area next to downtown. Voting is still open for yesterday's San Jose vs. Lansing contest.

Today's match features this year's lone Canadian contender, the Vancouver suburb of Surrey. (Parking craters: They're not just America's problem!) The opposing parking crater is an asphalt-riddled hospital campus girdled by highways in Providence, Rhode Island.

Here we go...

Providence

providence parking crater 2

The area around Rhode Island Hospital in downtown Providence is mostly a flat expanse of parking lots. Something about the combination of large institutions and highway ramps just seems to choke off walkable development.

While I-95 is a formidable barrier between downtown and this hospital and university cluster, all is not lost. The reader who submitted this entry, who gave his name as Drew, says the area has good bus service that's about to get better with the launch of the Downtown Connector, "a realignment of several bus routes" that will cut headways below five minutes. Sounds like transit good enough to build around.

Surrey

surrey parking crater 2

Check out this horror show in Surrey. Reader Russell Copley explains that this is the area around a university campus -- and it actually has great transit access:

It is located next to a few features: the Surrey campus of Simon Fraser University, and the Skytrain station of Surrey Central. As can be seen, the majority of this wide area are parking lots. The roads are quite wide and the sidewalks are not. The parking lots often have fences dividing them, so you can't walk through them to get from location to location and must walk through hostile terrain of the roadways. Of course, rarely anyone walks because of how hostile the area is.

Those poor students.

Which is worse? Vote below.

parking_madness_2018

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

America’s Kids Deserve Better Than a Waymo Subscription

What do America's young people lose when they have to buy independence from a corporation that rents out driverless cars?

July 15, 2025

Tuesday’s Headlines Aren’t Falling Fast Enough

Pedestrian deaths dropped by 4 percent last year, but remain well above pre-pandemic figures.

July 15, 2025

Monday’s Headlines Are Dragging Their Feet

The Trump administration claims the Biden administration left them with a backlog — but they've actually been far slower at getting transportation money to states than their predecessors, a new analysis finds.

July 14, 2025

These U.S. Communities’ So-Called ‘Complete Streets’ Policies Don’t Even Deserve the Name

Any city can call itself a "Complete Streets" champion. But not all of them are walking the walk — and if they don't, a top organization says they'll no longer give them a platform on its esteemed "best of" ranking.

July 14, 2025

Communities Rally To Reclaim Streets From ICE Terror

"This is an attack on Los Angeles. This is an attack on California. On all of us."

July 11, 2025

Friday Video: The London Neighborhood Where Bikes Outnumber Cars

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

July 11, 2025
See all posts