this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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Solarpunk Urbanism

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One solution to fight climate change? Fewer parking spaces - Grist (grist.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Getting rid of parking spaces just creates frustration among commuters unless you provide real practical alternatives to driving — dedicated bike lanes; proper public transport that has enough seats, runs frequently and on time, and arrives close to where people are going; and/or formal car pooling.

Bicycles aren’t practical for everyone. Public transport that requires passengers to stand for 20 minutes or more while crammed in like sardines; or public transport that runs every half-hour or more, isn’t useful — it actually discourages use of public transport. The only car pooling that I’ve seen work is when it’s organised within large companies so that people are going to the same destination and have something in common to talk about on the ride.

Waving a magic wand and canceling car parks is most definitely not useful unless proper alternatives are available.

Edit: Also, the plural of “minimum” is “minima“.

[–] TeaHands 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I despise car-reliant infrastructure as much as anyone but yeah, this has to be approached from all sides you can't just punish people who use cars due to there being no alternative, and then STILL give them no alternative.

That said, the article implies that this is in fact part of a larger plan and just removes one blocker, so I guess we'll see if that ends up being true or not.

[–] htrayl 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, don't buy into the strawman. At no point did anyone say "let's not do anything else". Removing the parking minimum tax enables the rest of it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, but at minimum, it may be good to get rid of mandatory parking minimums and the prioritization of good parking next to mass transit.

It doesn't have to be a lot of pain, but a little can help.

[–] htrayl 2 points 1 year ago

Yup, this can easily be a 10 year + project.

[–] grue 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Getting rid of parking spaces just creates frustration among commuters unless you provide real practical alternatives to driving

Good. Let them be frustrated, because that's how you get public support for real practical alternatives to driving!

Quit bending over backwards to accommodate cars FIRST and the good urbanism will follow.

[–] htrayl 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Adjusting parking minimums and reducing parking over time is absolutely the way to promote alternatives. It promotes higher better access to services (as land can be used for alternatives) and cheaper housing (meaning you can live closer to where you work).

The reality is we are vastly overparked. Depending on where you live, there can be 8 TIMES the number of parking spaces than cars. You can pretty easily reduce parking by 1/3 and have near zero impact for drivers 99% of the time (maybe on black Friday you may need to take a ride).

Also, just want to point out to the conservatives and libertarians in the crowd: Parking Minimums are a TAX. Worse, they are a tax that overly affects small business that is less likely to be able to get the support they need endure the taxes effect on their finances.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

nothing can be done, so let's just stick our heads in the sand and wail.

oh wait, no, human behavior and values change over time. so we can use that to our advantage by not enabling selfish fucks who refuse to change with the times. No one's expecting metro service to rural households, but also, it's insane to expect your right to your own single person transport while the world is on freaking fire.

so you do you bud, but understand the rest of society is going to change and you can fight it, but it won't make you right.