Why I Hate Free Parking

From Atlanta Magazine, a poignant graphic showing free parking taking over the built environment

I know what you're thinking, "How could you hate free parking, how could you hate free anything, even?" But, when it comes to city living, I struggle to appreciate free parking. Not that I don't mind the saved dollars, but when looking at the collective health of the city- what is best for everyone- free parking may not be the answer. In this blog, I will look into the impact of parking, and how much of an impact it really has on our built environment.

The city of Atlanta has parking requirements that each new development must meet. For instance, a new apartment complex has to meet a required minimum of spaces for its residences. And the grocery store built next to it has to meet a required minimum for its customers. And next to the grocery store, the office center has a required minimum of parking for its workers. And then next to the office, a chic restaurant complex has a parking deck for its customers, too.

From the ATL Urbanists- amount of space dedicated to parking in Downtown Atlanta

To our ear, where parking is plentiful in suburban America, nothing is wrong with this picture. Each development in our mind should be required to provide parking for its users. But set in an urban landscape, this parking is a big waste of space. Because the apartment complex's parking deck is only full from 9pm-8am, the grocery store parking lot only full from 5pm-7pm, the office parking deck is full from 9am-5pm, and the restaurants from 6pm-9pm. All of these separate places with different uses could share one parking structure because their uses keep them full at separate times. With less space devoted to parking, the built environment can be rebuilt to be more dense and walkable which results in better public health for the city. And with less parking provided and more options of getting around, less people will drive in the first place which alternatively eliminates the need for so much parking.

And now let's focus in on the money because honestly, you don't deserve free parking at the grocery store. Why? Because one typical surface parking lot spot costs $2,000-$4,000 to make. $2,000 is a lot of money to spend on a piece of land that may only be occupied 25% of the time (25% being very generous occupation rate for a surface lot). And a parking deck? One spot in a parking deck costs the developer at least $20,000. Most parking decks are typically around $30,000-$40,000 to build per spot while if it is an underground parking deck, the cost skyrockets to $70,000 (or more) per spot. Can you imagine spending $20,000 on one spot that is maybe occupied by an un-moving car for 15% of the time? That is literally crazy but is basically mandatory if you want to built a large development in any urban location now-a-days.

Another photo from ATL Urbanist- shows distinctly the waste of parking in an urban neighborhood

Why is it a requirement? Because in order to compete with suburban counterparts, central cities began changing zoning policy to have parking requirements for all new developments in the 1960's. Of course, we know that now our downtowns' can often be parking wastelands that are unfriendly to the pedestrian's eye while the effort to maintain development downtown still lost to the suburban exodus (think Edge City!).

So, I hate free parking because one) parking is never free. The actual parking spot has a cost to make while there are other costs too like costs on our physical health, on our built environment, and on our downtown's viability to retract and retain new development. The second reason I hate parking is because so often it is unnecessary. Combining different developments need for parking into one central, local place would reduce so much of our waste on building superfluous parking. Also, this central place would require a fee to enter, and when we create a "stick" such as a parking fee, people often consider other ways of getting around such as walking, biking, or taking transit.

Create spaces like this y'all! Not parking!

The argument I created here is certainly controversial because most Americans wouldn't want to give up a free service. Americans would never purposely want to tax their personal freedoms and create limits to parking while also inconveniencing their own lives. It almost unthinkable to us. But the reality is that parking is not a free service, in fact driving is a privilege that we take granted for everyday. If we really want to become more green and change the way we live our lives, then it is necessary to tax parking (like it is to tax driving). To achieve our goals in creating a more livable, environmentally conscious city, it is necessary that we constrain some our freedoms in pursuit of a stronger collective body.