ABSTRACT

The process of normal science then begins anew, proceeding slowly along until contradictory evidence again builds up and triggers the next paradigm shift. In practice, planning for parking is closer to sorcery than to science. Parking benefit districts can be retrofitted incrementally into existing neighborhoods. Planners and transportation engineers subsequently gathered data on the peak parking occupancy at various land uses. Planners use surveys of peak parking occupancy to set minimum parking requirements everywhere. In most cases, the large supply of required parking drives the market price of most parking to zero. Parking requirements differ from a scientific paradigm in one key respect. Parking requirements are especially difficult to reform because they are entrenched in zoning codes and embedded in an elaborate structure of permits, variances, covenants, court decisions, and entitlements. In contrast, planning education rarely, if ever, considers the single greatest arbiter of both transportation and land use—parking requirements.