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There is a law (laws?) in the US that dictate the amount of parking spaces each building needs. It's calculated using a Magic Formula. IIRC the formula was mad

There is a law (laws?) in the US that dictate the amount of parking spaces each building needs. It's calculated using a Magic Formula. IIRC the formula was made by a man who had zero experience in anything and didn't even own a car. He just made up the numbers off the top of his head. And now Americans have more parking spots than people. Still everyone seems to love the European style walkable cities but refuse to understand they've actually made it illegal to make cities like that. Zoning laws don't allow for mid-rise buildings with commercial use on the bottom floor and regulations about minimum amounts of parking space force every second block to be a parking garage...

bryanrasmussen 3y ago
>There is a law (laws?) it seems highly unlikely, given the way law works in the U.S, that there is one overarching law governing this. There are probably varying laws in each jurisdiction - but sure, these laws probably just copied whichever jurisdiction was first mover in the space.
UtopiaPunk 3y ago
Parking minimum requirements are usually handled at the local level. Parking minimum recomendations were somewhat standardized by the Institute of Transportation Engineers,(ITE). So whenever city councils around the country decide to prioritize car usage over walking and public transit, and obligated to guarantee people a place to store a car, they often turn to the ITE's guides. That said, the ITE's parking minimums guides are themselves kind of arbitrary. And the guides absolutely assume that practically everyone is traveling by car, and maybe (!!) that's not a great assumption to build on. A YouTube channel called Climate Town created a fun and well-researched video recently on the topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8
- theshrike79 3y ago
  Most likely it was the Climate Town video I was remembering in my comment =) At least the link is marked as visited for me, so most likely I've watched it.

bryanrasmussen 3y ago

>There is a law (laws?) it seems highly unlikely, given the way law works in the U.S, that there is one overarching law governing this. There are probably varying laws in each jurisdiction - but sure, these laws probably just copied whichever jurisdiction was first mover in the space.

UtopiaPunk 3y ago

Parking minimum requirements are usually handled at the local level. Parking minimum recomendations were somewhat standardized by the Institute of Transportation Engineers,(ITE). So whenever city councils around the country decide to prioritize car usage over walking and public transit, and obligated to guarantee people a place to store a car, they often turn to the ITE's guides. That said, the ITE's parking minimums guides are themselves kind of arbitrary. And the guides absolutely assume that practically everyone is traveling by car, and maybe (!!) that's not a great assumption to build on. A YouTube channel called Climate Town created a fun and well-researched video recently on the topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8

theshrike79 3y ago
Most likely it was the Climate Town video I was remembering in my comment =) At least the link is marked as visited for me, so most likely I've watched it.