Donate Newsletters
Home » Housing + Cities » Park Raving Mad, Cartoon Edition

Park Raving Mad, Cartoon Edition

How cities invent parking quotas, in 71 animated seconds.

Alan Durning

September 11, 2013

I explained this already. It took me 1,025 words to detail how cities make up parking quotas from junk science. Maximum parking tallies become minimum parking requirements become landscapes flooded with free parking, which induces more driving, which leads to higher tallies of maximum parking. Repeat.

Cascadian artist Don Baker has just explained it in 71 seconds. Behold: Driving in Circles.

Talk to the Author

Alan Durning

Alan Durning, executive director, founded Northwest Environment Watch in 1993, which became Sightline Institute in 2006. Alan’s current topics of focus include housing affordability and democracy reform.

Talk to the Author

Alan Durning

Alan Durning, executive director, founded Northwest Environment Watch in 1993, which became Sightline Institute in 2006. Alan’s current topics of focus include housing affordability and democracy reform.

About Sightline

Sightline Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of democracy, energy, and housing policy in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond.

8 thoughts on “Park Raving Mad, Cartoon Edition”

  1. I have not run into a massive oversupply of parting spaces. Where are they anyway. Definitely not on Capital Hill or near the Pike Place market.

  2. Check out Fort Collins. No parking minimums for commercial development *citywide*, and either a very low or no residential requirements in the “TOD” zone (basically anything within a few blocks of Old Town, CSU, or S. College). As a resident, the most prevalent comment I have heard is that oftentimes the only open space at the NE Walmart (CO-14 and Lemay) is at the edge of the lot.

  3. Do check out the other Digital Stories by Don Baker (convenient link in the article above) — I LOVE this guy.

  4. Mr. Durning et al,
    I serve on the senior affairs commission for Redwood City CA. Our downtown has become enormously popular for evening concerts, movies, salsa festivals and such and we’ve been told that seniors are reluctant to show up because parking’s extremely limited. A solution under serious consideration is to offer valet parking. Dunno whether users would be carded, to show proof of age — not likely. I’d appreciate referrals to any research or examples of similar proposals/solutions. (btw I saw you posted on Streetsblog) — thanks

    • Thanks for your comment. I’m not aware of any programs like that. Sorry. I would encourage you to post your question on the group “Shoupistas” on Facebook.

Comments are closed.

For press inquiries and interview requests, please contact Martina Pansze.

Sightline Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and does not support, endorse, or oppose any candidate or political party.

See an error? Have a question?

Find the author's contact information on our staff page to reach out to them, or send a message to editor@sightline.org.

Thanks to Elizabeth Moore for supporting a sustainable Cascadia.

Our work is made possible by the generosity of people like you.

×
Privacy Overview
Sightline Institute

More information about our privacy notice

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Additional Cookies

This website uses social media to collect anonymous information such as which platform are our users coming from.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us better reach our audiences.