Urban land is scarce and valuable, when cities mandate minimum parking requirements they increase the price of every other type of urban land use. Mandating parking in cities means less space for housing and less space for small businesses. This means more expensive housing and more expensive rents for businesses. The end result is a city that quickly becomes unaffordable for regular people.
An overreliance on intuitive reasoning and a determination to maintain outdated parking policies have birthed a perfect storm of political inertia capable of taking the wind out of parking reform’s proverbial sails. A recent proposal to abolish minimum parking mandates in the city of SeaTac was unfortunately caught up in this political inertia, hampering the odds of successful reform. The case study in SeaTac makes it clear just how paramount it is for our message to reach the public in order to ensure people are equipped to successfully advocate for parking reform in their own cities.
For people who advocate for parking policy reform (or transportation reform more broadly), the question comes up a lot: if you want to take away parking spots, doesn’t that exclude people with disabilities or mobility issues who rely on those spaces? This topic is complex, but luckily there are people on the case to sift …
Parking reform, aging, and disability roundtable Read More »
Imagine you own an efficient car, work about two miles from your home, and have an easy driving commute with free parking. If that parking were no longer free but cost you $5 per day and you had the option of pocketing an extra $5 for each day that you didn’t drive, you might dust …
Join us on Wednesday, September 21st at 11AM Pacific Time for this webinar. Free Zoom Registration is required. Oregon recently enacted the most aggressive statewide parking reforms in the nation, requiring jurisdictions in the state’s eight largest metro areas to eliminate or greatly reduce parking requirements. This webinar will provide an in-depth overview of the …
Webinar: The Inside Story of Oregon’s Big Parking Reforms Read More »
