Parking, People, and Cities
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 131, Issue 4
Abstract
In this study of how off-street parking requirements affect urban form, we begin by analyzing the relationship between population density and streets in cities. We find that denser cities devote a greater share of their land to streets, but also have less street space per person. This relationship results in part from the difficulty of constructing new streets in built-out areas. The amount of street space does not increase as fast as population density, and this in turn helps explain why dense areas have less vehicle travel per person but higher levels of congestion. In contrast to streets, new off-street parking is supplied continually, owing largely to minimum parking requirements that make new development contingent on the provision of parking spaces. But the ample supply of off-street parking makes traffic congestion worse and inhibits street life. We recommend either removing off-street parking requirements, or converting them from minimums to maximums.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank Eran Ben-Joseph and an anonymous referee for valuable comments, as well as Dave King, Paul Sorensen, Anne MacAulay, Eric Morris, Paul Philley, George Kosovich, and Bruce Williamson. Participants in a session at the ACSP Conference in Portland, Ore., in October 2004 also made helpful suggestions.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 131 • Issue 4 • December 2005
Pages: 233 - 245
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 10, 2004
Accepted: Feb 15, 2005
Published online: Dec 1, 2005
Published in print: Dec 2005
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