Over the past several years, parking reform has gained momentum across the country. Cities have begun taking the necessary steps to eliminate parking minimums, reconsider curb space management, and recognize the enormous costs of dedicating so much land to car storage. Much of this effort has been led by the Parking Reform Network, bringing together a strong community of advocates, researchers, planners, and policymakers to help communities understand and change the policies necessary to reshape our streets.
But changing these rules is only one step in the process.
After parking minimums are removed, there are still steps that need to be answered about what should go there, how much would it cost, who would maintain it, and how to make it happen. Creating a new outdoor dining space or a new park will require funds, directive, and a process to ensure the community has a voice in choosing what they’d like this new space to be.
Parking reform creates an opportunity for change; but what communities do with that opportunity is another challenge altogether.
Visualizing the Cost of Parking
About two years ago, New York City launched a campaign for a monumental housing proposal known as the City of Yes, which sought to build nearly 109,000 new homes over 15 years through a number of methods, including eliminating parking requirements for new housing citywide. Yet, what ultimately passed was a fairly lukewarm three-tiered zoning system that preserved parking requirements across major parts of the outer boroughs, maintaining space for parked cars, and dropping the potential number of homes from 109,000 to approximately 80,000.
Today, there are already an estimated 5.4 million parking spaces in NYC. Assuming a standard parking space of 8 ft. by 20ft., this adds up to over 860 million square feet, or over 20 Central Parks put together. To help better represent this idea, I wrote an article focused on what this space could be used for instead.
I explored online to see if there was an easy visual tool to help represent this idea, so I could focus on what this space could be used for instead. However, I found it difficult to find a tool to visualize what I could place in a parking space, so for my original article, I drafted a simple floor plan on a design tool, mapping out a floor plan the size of two parking spaces.
In roughly the same area, I could fit an outdoor dining unit, a small apartment, or a bus transit stop. This comparison made it much easier to visualize what the city could gain instead of talking about parking as a number of spaces. I showed this diagram to a number of colleagues and community members, and quickly learned that it was much easier to explain this concept by showing a visual instead of only imagining what it could be.
Making Community Planning More Accessible
Every September, PARK(ing) Day does something similar to my diagram above, offering a physical representation of what local communities would prefer a parking space to be. Volunteers transform ordinary parking spaces into gardens, art galleries, dining areas, and places for people to sit and gather. What I find particularly powerful about these projects is how simple the idea is. Built with adaptable, modular pieces, these spaces showcase that people don’t need to understand zoning regulations or complicated policy to imagine other purposes for a parking space.
But most of these installations are temporary. Once PARK(ing) Day ends, the furniture is packed up, the plants are moved, and the cars return. This becomes much more difficult to imagine as a permanent change to the neighborhood.
The challenge isn’t necessarily getting people to imagine something different. It’s giving them the tools to make those ideas a reality.
In fact, there is nothing inherently radical about a resident proposing another use for their street. Community board meetings ask for feedback from local residents all the time. But the way these meetings are structured often asks people to react to plans that have already been developed, rather than giving them the opportunity to propose alternatives of their own.
Even when someone has an idea, it can be quite difficult for a person who is not a transportation consultant or urban designer to know the right way to communicate that feedback in a way that is constructive and impactful. It’s even more difficult to understand the steps required to implement it, given the complexity of permitting, budgeting, and specific local government processes.
There is also a gap in the tools available to help people through this process.
Spatial design tools such as Streetmix and Streetplan have made it easier to visualize different street configurations, while IKEA, Floorplanner, and Amazon have made similar tools commonplace for designing our homes. With the advent of generative AI, it has become even easier for anyone to take a photograph of a street and visualize what it could become.
But while these tools help people see what is possible, they don’t necessarily help them understand what it would take to make that change happen. A rendering might show a beautiful new public plaza, but it doesn’t explain how much it would cost, what permits would be required, or how someone could bring that proposal to their local government.
I wanted to create something that could help bridge that gap. Something that would make it easier for people not only to visualize what a parking space could become, but also to understand the tradeoffs and take the first steps toward implementation.
Introducing Parking, Reimagined
Parking, Reimagined is an open civic planning tool I created through In Spaces Studio to help anyone explore what a parking space could become.
The premise is simple: choose the size of a space and imagine what could replace the parked cars. Using a library of scaled elements, anyone can arrange benches, greenery, bike parking, seating, and other amenities to create their own designs.
A restaurant owner might want to turn two parking spaces outside their business into an outdoor dining area. A neighborhood resident might imagine a small plaza with benches, trees, and tables for neighbors to gather. A community group could use the tool to compare several possible designs before presenting a proposal to its local government.
Beyond designing a space, the tool also includes cost estimates, examples of similar projects, and resources to help people understand the steps toward implementation. Designs can be easily shared, presented, or printed for use in community workshops. Inspired by other design toolkits, I’ve also developed a printable version that allows participants to physically arrange elements on a grid, almost like a board game. I’m also exploring a more permanent physical kit that community organizations could bring to meetings and workshops.
My hope is that a community member can walk into a meeting with more than a general request for better public space. Instead, they can bring a design, explain what it would provide, understand the potential costs and tradeoffs, and lead a more informed conversation about what it would take to build.
Of course, Parking, Reimagined is not meant to replace technical engineering, professional design, or formal permitting processes. Costs, regulations, and implementation requirements vary across cities, and the tool will need to evolve to better reflect those local differences. Rather, it’s meant to be a starting point for discussion, giving people a way to turn an idea into something tangible that they can share, refine, and potentially bring to life.
Joining the Resources on PRN
I’m excited to be working with the Parking Reform Network to bring Parking, Reimagined to its collection of resources, under a new section called Create Your Own Parklet.
For me, this is a natural next step for the project, building on the work PRN has done to help communities understand and advocate for parking reform.
Through resources like the Parking Reform Map and Policy Cookbook, advocates and policymakers can understand where parking reform is happening, learn from other cities, and identify opportunities to change how parking is regulated and managed.
Parking, Reimagined is meant to complement these existing resources by helping people take that next step, making it easier for communities to decide what comes next into something tangible.
An advocate might use PRN’s research to make the case for parking reform, while a neighborhood organization could use Parking, Reimagined to explore what several parking spaces could become. Together, these tools can help connect the policy decisions being made at the city level with the ideas and priorities of the people who live there.
What Comes Next?
Parking, Reimagined is still growing, and there is much more I hope to build. One of the next steps is to make it easier for people to move from a design toward an actual project. That means improving cost estimates, documenting local permitting processes, and connecting designs to potential funding sources and examples of successful implementation.
I’m also interested in expanding the physical workshop materials for community meetings, PARK(ing) Day events, and neighborhood planning exercises, along with creating a community gallery where people can submit their designs, share ideas, and learn from projects in other cities.
Working with the Parking Reform Network creates an opportunity to bring these ideas to a much wider network of advocates and practitioners who can help test the tool, validate costs and regulations, and identify what would make it more useful in different communities. A parklet in New York City will face different requirements than one in Portland or Los Angeles, and building something that works across these places will require local knowledge and partnerships.
My hope is to continue working with cities, business improvement districts, community organizations, and advocates to make Parking, Reimagined more practical and useful over time. Ultimately, I want it to become more than a place to create designs, helping people understand the steps between having an idea, building support for it, and seeing it become a reality.
On December 8, I’ll also be joining the Parking Reform Network for a Lunch & Learn, Create Your Own Parklet: From Idea to Reality, to demonstrate the tool and discuss how communities can use it.
I created Parking, Reimagined because I believe more people should be able to participate in shaping the places where they live, without needing a background in urban planning or design. A city can remove parking mandates, but communities still need the tools and resources to decide what comes next.
If you’re a local advocate, planner, community organization, or city official interested in testing the tool, hosting a workshop, or helping develop resources for your community, I’d love to hear from you.
Parking reform can create the opportunity for better public spaces. Now it’s time to help communities bring those possibilities to life.
Gibson Chu is a New York City-based urban planner, product leader, and founder of In Spaces Studio, an independent urban research and design practice. He created Parking, Reimagined to help communities explore alternative uses for parking spaces and turn ideas for better streets into action. Feel free to contact him at [email protected] or @gibsontchu.
