Search Results
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The Costs of Parking Mandates
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Parking Reform: From Theory to Practice
The conversation shared below was part of the YIMBYtown 2022 conference, cohosted by Sightline Institute and Portland: Neighbors Welcome.* It wouldn’t be YIMBYtown if we didn’t have at least one panel to talk about the high cost of free parking. The principles of Donald Shoup have never been more popular; advocates, elected officials, and policymakers are all looking at reform to car parking policies as an essential task to increase...Read more » -
Q&A: The Costs of Parking Mandates in Booming Austin
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End Parking Mandates, Get a Free Bus Pass
What if more of our collective brainpower—not just our governments, but the billions of tiny decisions that add up to our entire economy—were working to reduce our dependence on the automobile? How many good little ideas might we come up with? Here’s one: apartments that come with an all-you-can-ride transit pass included. It’s happening right now in Minneapolis, the Star-Tribune reported: Metro Transit plans to expand a pilot that provides all-you-can-ride passes to residents of apartments, condos...Read more » -
To Stop Building Heat Islands, Stop Overbuilding Parking Lots
Update, July 2023: In 2022, Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission adopted rules to reduce minimum parking ratios for jurisdictions within metropolitan areas, with an option for cities to eliminate all parking mandates. It is a major step forward that will make it possible for future development to be constructed without building more heat islands. Urban heat islands got national attention this past summer after a record heat wave in the Pacific Northwest killed...Read more » -
Yes, Even Walmart Wants to Build Smaller Parking Lots
Nestled near the Columbia River in Wood Village, Oregon, is the largest Walmart in the Portland region. The building spans three-and-a-half football fields, but it’s dwarfed by something else: the surrounding parking lot, twice as big as the store itself. When it expanded from a Walmart to a Walmart Supercenter in 2004, its floor space increased by 45 percent. Its parking lot grew less, though, only adding 36 percent more spaces. Turns out, Walmart has been quietly reducing its parking ratios for years. Case study: Walmart follows consumer behavior, reduces parking “Every time we reevaluate, we pull it...Read more » -
How Oregonians Re-legalized ‘Missing Middle’ Homes
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Great News: Portland’s Next Rail Line May Have Fewer Parking Garages
The people planning the Portland area’s next light-rail line seem to be steering away from a scenario where taxpayers waste $100 million of precious public-transit funding on a series of giant parking garages. But unless the public speaks up in the next month, it’s possible that a handful of elected officials will push to build the garages anyway—despite a mountain of evidence that spending the money on bus service, infrastructure...Read more » -
Here’s What Oregon’s Huge New Transit Housing Bill Would Legalize
One of North America’s biggest new ideas for greener transportation is spreading north. A year after a pair of California state senators drew national attention with a proposal to lift apartment bans from all residential land within a quarter mile of frequent transit, Oregon has a similar bill of its own. Senate Bill 10, which was introduced last week, had its first public hearing Monday, February 25. This isn’t the...Read more » -
Here’s Oregon’s New Bill to Re-legalize ‘Missing Middle’ Homes Statewide
Duplexes, triplexes and quads were legal and common, across Oregon and elsewhere, until cities started banning them from most residential land in the mid-1900s. These neighborhood-specific bans on mid-size homes have worsened Oregon’s long-term shortage of workforce housing, driving up home costs and forcing many families to choose between two extremes: a detached home with a lawn—which often has to be far from work and amenities in order to find...Read more »