Press One Key to Fix Your City's Parking Policy

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At Strong Towns, we’re not big fans of the “With This One Neat Trick…” school of urban policy. The world is complex, and our cities no less so. There are very few one-size-fits-all policies to solve our most pressing problems: what we need, instead, is to commit ourselves to a process of steadily and incrementally improving our places by observing urgent needs, addressing them, and then iterating on our successes.

However, just because there aren’t policies that everybody should have, doesn’t mean there aren’t policies that nobody should have. And mandatory parking minimums are one policy that no city should have on its books.

We receive a lot of alerts about upcoming webinars, workshops, continuing-ed courses and the like aimed at people in the city-building professions. One of them came our way in August, for a seminar for city planners on a multi-step process to explore reforming parking policy—of interest in a world in which many would like to encourage walkable communities and more flexible development patterns. We have no doubt this was well-intended and that the content was useful to participants, but we would humbly like to propose a better approach to parking policy than years of studies and focus groups:

• Open your zoning code.

• Swipe over the whole parking section with your mouse and highlight it.

• Hit the delete button.

Local government simply does not need to be in the business of requiring on-site car storage for either new development or existing buildings. Those with the incentive to provide it are perfectly capable of making that call themselves—and choosing the necessary amount. There are problems the market can’t solve… but parking isn’t one of them.

We’re being a bit facetious with the “just press delete” approach, of course. The politics of ending parking minimums are much more difficult than the mechanics of doing so. And so we’ve tried to publish some good content on the politics: how to make the case to citizens and public officials alike, and lessons from cities that have successfully done so. (Most recently, we’ve been proud this year to dive deep into the experience of Edmonton, Alberta, probably 2020’s biggest parking success story.)

A big part of what matters is critical mass. City officials are notorious for wanting to know, “Where else has this been done successfully?” before endorsing or voting for any policy change. The greater the number of cities that abolish their parking minimums, from big to small, metropolitan to rural, liberal to conservative—and live to tell of the good results, the more likely it is that your city council will be ready to take the plunge.

At Strong Towns, we keep a running, crowd-sourced map of cities that have partially or completely done away with parking requirements. We know it’s far from complete: if your city isn’t on here and should be, fill out this survey and we'll make sure to add it. The more details you can provide, the better, as well as contact info for a city official involved in the change so that those seeking to learn from your town’s example can get in touch.

In 2020, as we mentioned, Edmonton, Alberta joined the club. So did 2017 Strongest Town Contest champion Traverse City, Michigan—here’s a local article about Traverse City’s policy change this fall. And a host of other places: far too many to name.

When will your city appear on this map?

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This week is #BlackFridayParking Week. Each year, people from all over the U.S. and Canada participate as a way to draw attention to—and then end—wasteful parking minimums. This year we’re doing it with a 2020 twist. To learn more and see how you can participate too, check out our #BlackFridayParking page. Then make sure to follow the #BlackFridayParking hashtag this week on your social channels.

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