Cities And The Never Ending Search For Where To Put Our Cars

January 7th, 2008 · 1 Comment

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I have been reading a lot lately about how we now have 1 billion cars on the road in the world and more interestingly that the number is expected to double in something like the next 30 years. I found an interesting article today about some possible ways around the gridlock. And for those who really like to dig, here is another one in the same strain.

Levi

(Update: I just realized looking back on the archives that several of my posts are about parking, maybe I have some hidden obsession with parking lots.. Hmmmm…Or maybe someone needs to invent a better form of transportation)

Tags: author: levi · parking · transportation

1 response so far ↓

1 wburg // Jan 9, 2008 at 10:26 am

I get very sick of reading the line about “America’s love affair with the car.” At this point it’s not a love affair anymore, more like a codependent relationship. As someone who has let several buses pass me by on Market Street so I can ride a PCC or a Peter Witt on the F-line instead, I’d like to start hearing more about America’s love affair with rail transit.

Parking is more complex: as I have mentioned before, there is a big difference between parking to go somewhere and parking at one’s home. For the former, it is generally acceptable to walk a distance, either through a parking lot or down the street. For the latter, tolerable parking radius drops drastically. Part of this is because one of the legitimate reasons to use a car is to carry big, heavy or bulky things (groceries, bookshelves, fertilizer) and not being able to park close to one’s house makes such transfers radically more difficult (ask anyone who has had to move stuff in San Francisco.) Part is because driving home is not an optional activity. We can choose to not drive places and thus save a vehicle trip, but if we and our vehicle are somewhere besides home, eventually we have to go home, taking the car along with us.

Perhaps a better way to think about parking at home is “vehicle storage”: it’s a place to put your car when you’re not using it. If the idea of using your car less is something you’re trying to push, that means it will be “not used” more, and the issue of where you keep it when you’re not using it becomes even more important.