I live car-free in NYC. A large appeal of NYC to me was not having to park. I don't ~mind~ driving, but I absolutely hated having to deal with finding parking when I lived in other cities. Parking generally makes me feel stressed (competition for free spots), or makes me pay (using something like SpotHero makes it easy to find a spot, but costs me). It's not even just major cities either- I'm frequently in a college…
> but for $33 a week I can get to most major neighborhoods in 30 minutes Ahh yes, only the most important, noteworthy neighborhoods that most likely aren’t transit deserts, right?
The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
111–120 of 683 posts
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People needing to move non-trivial distances for periodic tasks shapes everything. Cars, and thus car parking, come about because of this need. This is not true. Every city in the US used to have a robust public transit system. No cars or parking lots needed. You can hitch 2 horses per car space, and 10-20 bikes in the same space. Those pre-car public transit systems were bankrupted by artificially low fares, and b…
> This is not true. Every city in the US used to have a robust public transit system. No cars or parking lots needed. That WAS true, but that's not the reality that's shaping planning now. Further, many central business districts have been eroded by cars + big box suburbanization, so that many of those essentials are only obtainable in areas that never even had transit or didn't exist when transit was still a thing.…
> That WAS true, but that's not the reality that's shaping planning now
Yes, this is indeed a problem we need to fix, agreed. For now I'm open to reducing the comical over provisioning of parking spots in strip malls by removing minimum parking requirements and hopefully replacing the large car parking spots with smaller bike and motorcycle parking spots and even bus stops.
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#113Seems like parking is a side effect for people's preference for larger houses and yards. Convince people to live in smaller houses and share walls with their neighbors, and the parking situation would change dramatically.
This is nice when everyone you live near is quiet, respectful, safe, and clean. What happens when the neighborhood turns and your wife can’t safely walk her dog outside the house, and you can’t get sleep anymore due to the loud pumping bass and drunk people fighting outside your window?
I kind of like the idea of a city community with nice little shops close by, but every city I’ve been in has had too much crime, congestion, and noise to make it livable for someone who likes quiet and solitude.
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#114I live car-free in NYC. A large appeal of NYC to me was not having to park. I don't ~mind~ driving, but I absolutely hated having to deal with finding parking when I lived in other cities. Parking generally makes me feel stressed (competition for free spots), or makes me pay (using something like SpotHero makes it easy to find a spot, but costs me). It's not even just major cities either- I'm frequently in a college…
I travel around the USA a fair amount. In the vast majority of cities, parking just isn't a problem. I drive my car where I want to go and park. Sometimes I have to pay. But the places where no parking is available are very rare. I am fully in favor of walkable neighborhoods and reducing the need to drive. But lack of parking is just not a stressor that most Americans worry about.
I'd need to see some numbers to believe that this is true for "most Americans." Certainly it's not a problem for most of America if we're talking about geographic area. But population is obviously not distributed uniformly.
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#115There's an interesting interview with a designer of SimCity, where he discusses parking: Geoff Manaugh: While you were making those measurements of different real-world cities, did you discover any surprising patterns or spatial relationships Librande: Yes, definitely. I think the biggest one was the parking lots. When I started measuring out our local grocery store, which I don’t think of as being that big, I was bl…
I was curious how much bigger the real stadium parking was.
SimCity: https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/simcity/e/...
Real Stadium: https://i.imgur.com/KwT1T53.png
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#116I think you need to go one level deeper: People needing to move non-trivial distances for periodic tasks shapes everything. Cars, and thus car parking, come about because of this need. Even before cars existed, roads and parking (such as hitching posts and stables) still existed because people needed to move. And even bicycles (electric or not) need parking too. There are startups dedicated to creating automated bike…
Why do I need to go to the mall? Because there is no retail zoning closer to my home.
Thankfully changing retail zoning is as cheap and expedient as writing a document. Regrettably legislation takes a while to move, but given any solution to this problem will require legislation changes anyway, the marginal value for just allowing mixed use commercial/residential zoning is effectively nil.
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#117I know this is US-by-default site but does parking really shape everything around us (most of the humanity)? What about South America or Africa?
From my experience in living in Asia, USA and Europe, it might only be applicable to USA.
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're describing urban environments. A lot of people live in those places already. But a lot of people prefer to live elsewhere. Differences in preference is fine. What doesn't make sense though is driving in urban environments, especially single-occupant vehicles that make up the vast majority of motor traffic in major cities. Keep the suburbs. But I think it'd be good to make cities painful to drive in for all but…
> it'd be good to make cities painful to drive in This is the wrong approach. Don't intentionally make driving worse for anyone, anywhere, ever. If you want people to use transit instead, then improve it until it's a better option than driving is today.
Driving in urban environments is already terrible. This is the de-facto effect of density, regardless of what intended policy is. It seems to me that there’s just no way to have a large number of cars be comfortable in a dense urban environment. Might as well just try to minimize them.
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's your opinion, sharing a wall but being able to walk or bike easily to everything I need it a huge boost to my quality of life.
If you get lucky and get quiet and/or friendly neighbors, sure.
Sound isolation is part of the price/quality tradeoff. Urban housing is just so scarce relative to demand that almost no one can afford quality.
Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is somewhat a zero-sum game at least in urban centers. Driving is cheap because free and cheap parking is widely available, and car speed is prioritized over other factors including pedestrian safety. I've never seen an urban center where "free and cheap parking is widely available", or one with a speed limit above 25.
I've been to NYC where free and cheap parking is on nearly every major and minor street. I would consider it widely available. Yes, trying to find a parking spot is a nightmare but that doesn't mean it isn't widely available generally.
>Yes, trying to find a parking spot is a nightmare but that doesn't mean it isn't widely available generally.
But that’s exactly what it means. It’s not available to people. Someone else already parked there.