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This is the season climax, the culmination, the big reveal. Previously on Parking? Lots! Cities mandate off-street parking (guided only by junk science and groupthink). They do it in fear of territorial neighbors who want “their” curb spaces left alone. Our communities suffer horribly as a result. Information technology is shaking things up, though, and cities can now charge for curb spaces more easily. They can also share the proceeds...

In Peggy Clifford’s neighborhood, out back of the State Capitol in Olympia, Washington, a black market thrives. Early each year during the state’s legislative session, lobbyists go there—just a hop, skip, and a jump from the capitol dome—to buy what they crave: parking spaces. Peggy says, “This is a neighborhood, not a parking lot.” Tell that to regular Capitol visitors. The neighborhood may be nationally registered as historic and staunchly...

“My sister has great food karma. She finds great food, and she never pays.” If you heard someone say that, you’d just scratch your head. What could that mean? Does she dumpster dive? If you substitute the “parking” for “food,” though, it makes sense. Indeed, a friend said those exact words to me recently, so I started asking others about their parking karma. Everyone I asked knew exactly what I...

On-street parking takes up a lot of space in North American cities: 5 to 8 percent of all urban land, according to UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup. If parking reforms like pricing curb spots end up reducing the need for curb parking in our cities, what will we do with all that extra space? As it turns out, Cascadian cities are already trying out some exciting new ideas. In...

Your bedroom is smaller than your car’s—that and other surprising facts stand out in a new infographic we’ve assembled with architect and designer Seth Goodman of Graphing Parking. Mandatory off-street parking quotas written into local land-use laws have pernicious effects. At multifamily buildings, localities require developers to construct off-street parking spaces for each apartment or condominium. Many cities also require a side order of visitor parking. The requirements vary with...

We’re putting together a new series about the many ways that parking regulations and mandates can affect the way that cities look, work, and feel. But first we need your help! All too often, zoning codes force developers to cram a site with extra parking, leading to urban and suburban spaces that work for cars but not for human beings. Some of the results are downright eyesores—and we want to...

Over the weekend, Seattle’s restaurant association took to the op-ed pages to complain about the City’s parking policies downtown. As they tell it, changes in parking policy “hits them where it hurts our businesses the most: their wallets.” Yet as with so many discussions of parking, the restauranteurs’ argument is long on conjecture but extremely short on hard data. A look at gross receipts figures for downtown restaurants shows precisely...

*** Ack! Please see the coda at the bottom of this post. *** If I were a sociologist I would examine the deeply irrational beliefs people having about parking. I’m serious. Start talking about meter rates or extending pay hours and you can pretty much throw logic right out the window. Exhibit A is last week’s Seattle Times story on restaurants in the Chinatown/International District. Owners allege that business is down since...