Does the sight of huge, ugly parking lots make you feel sad and faintly nauseous? Too bad!
We've got five more Parking Madness matches before we crown the victor and award the Golden Crater. The Final Four is beginning to take shape, with Lansing through to the semi-final and voting still open in the Houston vs. Philadelphia stadium parking rumble.
Today, Nashville's NFL parking moonscape takes on Providence's pockmarked hospital campus.
Nashville
Nashville's Nissan Stadium was nominated by reader Adam Blair. What separates it from other stadium craters in this year's Parking Madness bracket is its proximity to downtown, which is just across the river. Rather than clustering more housing and jobs in the center of town, Nashville lets this real estate sit empty for much of the year, channeling runoff into the Cumberland River.
All told, the stadium has 7,500 parking spaces, with the complex spread out over 120 acres, according to the Nashville Sports Authority. Like too many other large sports venues, the public subsidized Nissan Stadium and its parking lots, with more than $200 million in taxpayer funds from Davidson County and the state of Tennessee channeled into this project.
Providence
Despite being a stone's throw from downtown Providence, the area surrounding Rhode Island Hospital is saturated with surface parking.
Buses do serve this area, according to the reader who nominated it, and the city is planning a "Downtown Connector" that will consolidate various routes and increase the frequency of service to every five minutes. Will that also prompt redevelopment of these asphalt lots, so people don't have to walk through a bleak parking dead zone to get to the bus?
Read More:
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog USA
E-Bikes and Creating Financially Sustainable Bike Share Programs
The number of customers using bike share in the U.S. and Canada is now at an all-time high thanks to e-bikes.
Tuesday’s Headlines Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit
Greg Shill argues that if a transformative road redesign isn't possible, it's time to talk about second-best strategies.
How to Fight a Texas-Sized Freeway Battle
A new book explores how Texas advocates are fighting back against destructive highway expansions. But what happened to those projects since it was sent to the printer?
S.F. Fire Apologies for Tweeting About Imaginary Bike Rule
There is no rule in California that says cyclists have to ride single file — but the San Francisco Fire Department tweeted about it anyway.
You Wouldn’t Like Monday’s Headlines When They’re Angry
Which state has the worst road rage? Consumer Affairs magazine looked at a variety of factors to come up with an answer.
