Parking
Basics
Downtown Hartford Marries Parking Meter Reform With Car-Free Streets
Pratt Street is a narrow, one-way block-long street in the heart of downtown Hartford, Connecticut, lined with red brick pavers and historic storefronts. It's also the latest street in the United States to go car-free, at least some of the time, as part of the city's first agreement to spend parking meter revenue on local streetscape improvements.
May 8, 2017
Tesla’s Parking Problem Says a Lot About Elon Musk’s Brand of Tech Saviorism
It's fitting that the Palo Alto headquarters for Elon Musk's flagship company, Tesla, has an epic logistical problem caused by the spatial inefficiency of its core product.
April 14, 2017
Mexico City May Abolish Its Parking Minimums
Mexico City Mayor Miguel Mancera is pursuing a sweeping overhaul of the city's parking policy that's expected to do away with minimum parking requirements and generate revenue for transit and affordable housing. If enacted, the reforms could set an important precedent for cities in North and South America.
April 12, 2017
Parking Madness 2017 Tip-Off: St. Louis vs. Sacramento
Welcome to the first match in the first round of Streetsblog's 2017 Parking Madness tournament, our 16-city bracket highlighting the worst "parking craters" in North America. This year, we're focusing on a specific type of parking disaster: transit stations engulfed by car storage.
March 17, 2017
A Fixation on Parking Threatens Transit Progress in Atlanta
Darin Givens is frustrated with how Atlanta is planning for the future. “We don’t feel like the city is building transit that fits needs, or places that fit transit,” says the founder of local advocacy site Thread ATL. “You see nodes of density nowhere near transit, located nowhere near a MARTA station or a regular MARTA bus. We’re not matching development and transit.”
March 2, 2017
Austin May Cut Parking Requirements By Nearly 50 Percent
Austin is in the process of overhauling its zoning code -- an initiative called CodeNext -- and one of the most promising aspects is a major reduction in parking requirements. If the current draft holds up, the effects on walkability, housing affordability, and water quality could be impressive.
March 1, 2017
Why Do We Still Pay People to Drive to Work?
The federal government spends $7 billion annually subsidizing parking for car commuters -- almost as much as it spends annually on transit. No wonder cities are so congested. If we're going to cut traffic in major cities, parking subsidies have got to go.
February 28, 2017
America Builds Way Too Much Parking Near Transit
We build parking that nobody ever uses because that's what American engineering standards recommend.
February 1, 2017
The Case for a Tax on Parking Lots
Parking lots make cities less walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly. They crowd out space for housing. But with a parking lot tax, incentives change and using parking as a placeholder becomes a lot less attractive.
January 18, 2017
One British City’s Transit Solution: Tax Parking
Nottingham, England, is winning recognition around the U.K. for its successful commuter parking program, which charges employers for the spaces they provide to employees and directs the revenue to transit.
January 13, 2017
