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Everytime parking (or how cities transit should be) is mentioned, the US is (rightfully) shown as a bad example, and usually compared with Europe. So I feel li

Everytime parking (or how cities transit should be) is mentioned, the US is (rightfully) shown as a bad example, and usually compared with Europe. So I feel like I could give an example about other parts of the world, just for perspective. In summary -- man, I wish my city is half this good so I can actually park in peace. I live in China, a relatively large size city (pop around 8M to 10M, not too special within China) and we have what I would say "good" public transit system (hundreds of bus lines, 8 metro lines and increasing), not to mention millions of people just commute in e-bikes. But the thing is, people still need to drive from time to time. (So traffic is as bad). How do we solve the parking issue without building enough parking places? Well, we kinda of don't. For most of public places, you just park everywhere that you can squeeze in. On Roads, on sidewalks, you name it. You better be instantly good at parallel parking and reversing, otherwise you won't survive. Residential locations are much better nowadays since most new communities now build with parking in mind, but public locations are still a nightmare (an exception is large malls, which usually have underground parking). Everytime I want to go somewhere the first thing I need to do is to plan how to park once I were there. It's awful. Anyway, my point isn't that "the US is fine as soon as other places are worse", just that "it's complicated" I guess. I lived in the US for years including some large cities. While I really wish there is better public transit (especially when I were traveling), at least parking is bearable thanks to enforced parking lot requirement.

thomasthetrain 4y ago
> Everytime I want to go somewhere the first thing I need to do is to plan how to park once I were there. It's awful. I’d say it’s a fair requirement: if you want to carry a big machine around, you are responsible for leaving it somewhere adequate. Enforced parking lot requirement is just obliging other people to reserve mostly unproductive land in their properties, and that has very negative effects, such as creating big distances between destinations and, as a consequence, making public transportation less efficient and walking more difficult. It usually (always?) makes cities worse.
CalRobert 4y ago
The point is that there should be less parking, not more, and there should never be subsidized parking. You do not deserve to store your giant metal box on public property for free, and I want to be able to patronize businesses that aren't surrounded by parking lots and forced to raise prices to cover the cost of building/renting parking.

thomasthetrain 4y ago

> Everytime I want to go somewhere the first thing I need to do is to plan how to park once I were there. It's awful. I’d say it’s a fair requirement: if you want to carry a big machine around, you are responsible for leaving it somewhere adequate. Enforced parking lot requirement is just obliging other people to reserve mostly unproductive land in their properties, and that has very negative effects, such as creating big distances between destinations and, as a consequence, making public transportation less efficient and walking more difficult. It usually (always?) makes cities worse.

CalRobert 4y ago

The point is that there should be less parking, not more, and there should never be subsidized parking. You do not deserve to store your giant metal box on public property for free, and I want to be able to patronize businesses that aren't surrounded by parking lots and forced to raise prices to cover the cost of building/renting parking.