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The article should really be named “America has too much free parking”. Because the way it is right now, is that the only way things work is to build everythin
by comte7092 4y ago
The article should really be named “America has too much free parking”.
Because the way it is right now, is that the only way things work is to build everything where land is cheap enough for free surface parking to make sense, the costs of building an underground/multistory garage are not insignificant. There ends up being an inevitable feedback loop wherein all other modes of transportation aren’t practical and everyone is forced into a car whether they want to be or not.
- dsfyu404ed 4y agoOr reduce the cost of building parking garages. Parking is a necessary evil to businesses and developers. Someone seeking to develop land into a strip mall or big box store or rental apartments doesn't want to buy and pay tax on ten acres of land, pay to have it street swept every fall and spring, plowed every winter, seal-coated every 5yr, repainted every 10 and re-paved every 20-30. Parking garages are pre-engineered kit-buildings (like steel warehouses). The fact that you have to grease all the usual state palms, go through the stupid approval processes, etc, etc as if you're developing a standalone dedicated facility to put them up whereas a parking lot is basically a footnote on whatever you're already trying to develop is why you rarely see them.