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I agree with that, but that article says the _average_ American parking space costs six hundred dollars PER YEAR. How does that make any sense whatsoever? Maybe

I agree with that, but that article says the _average_ American parking space costs six hundred dollars PER YEAR. How does that make any sense whatsoever? Maybe in downtown areas in a few big cities. But that's the average for the entire country. There's no possible way that can be true.

i_cant_speel 9y ago
Are you saying that is expensive? The parking in my building in a big city is over $200 per month. The extremely expensive places are going to pull up the average quite a bit.
randallsquared 9y ago
In downtown areas in some US cities, a parking space might go for hundreds per month. http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_cost_of_a_parking_spot_in_dc/8348 http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_cost_of_a_parking_...
mikeash 9y ago
Why can't it be true? Land is expensive, road construction is expensive, road maintenance is expensive. $600/year to maintain ~200ft^2 of road seems relatively reasonable to me.
deleted 9y ago
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wokky 9y ago
...estimates that the annualized cost of land, construction, maintenance, and operations per parking space in the U.S. comes out to $600 [PDF]. I've heard it said, although I can't find a cite right now, that the construction of an underground parking complex may cost $40,000 per space. You can see how that sort of thing would push the average up a lot. You can also adjust "annualized costs" a lot by changing assumptions about useful lifetime. In practice, many American suburban parking lots are maintained very poorly and probably come out very cheap per space. The PDF linked from the article does show more detail than the $600/year figure. While some categories cost a little less than $600/year, several categories cost a lot more, so the average gets up there even though the expensive kinds are rarer.
- pm24601 9y ago
  Double that cost on underground parking more like $80K-$90K... my source is personal conversation with apartment developers in MV. You can believe me or not.

i_cant_speel 9y ago

Are you saying that is expensive? The parking in my building in a big city is over $200 per month. The extremely expensive places are going to pull up the average quite a bit.

randallsquared 9y ago

In downtown areas in some US cities, a parking space might go for hundreds per month. http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_cost_of_a_parking_spot_in_dc/8348 http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_cost_of_a_parking_...

mikeash 9y ago

Why can't it be true? Land is expensive, road construction is expensive, road maintenance is expensive. $600/year to maintain ~200ft^2 of road seems relatively reasonable to me.

deleted 9y ago

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wokky 9y ago

...estimates that the annualized cost of land, construction, maintenance, and operations per parking space in the U.S. comes out to $600 [PDF]. I've heard it said, although I can't find a cite right now, that the construction of an underground parking complex may cost $40,000 per space. You can see how that sort of thing would push the average up a lot. You can also adjust "annualized costs" a lot by changing assumptions about useful lifetime. In practice, many American suburban parking lots are maintained very poorly and probably come out very cheap per space. The PDF linked from the article does show more detail than the $600/year figure. While some categories cost a little less than $600/year, several categories cost a lot more, so the average gets up there even though the expensive kinds are rarer.

pm24601 9y ago
Double that cost on underground parking more like $80K-$90K... my source is personal conversation with apartment developers in MV. You can believe me or not.