ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that parking requirements cause great harm: they subsidize cars, distort transportation choices, warp urban form, increase housing costs, burden low-income households, debase urban design, damage the economy, and degrade the environment. Off-street parking requirements thus have all the hallmarks of a great planning disaster. The frequent references to parking requirements in planning disputes make it appear that everyone always insists on more parking, including even environmentalists who are no friends of the car. The common practice of using parking generation rates as the basis for parking requirements is particularly inappropriate at land uses with short, sharp peaks in parking demand. Parking requirements bundle the cost of parking spaces into the cost of dwelling units, and therefore shift the cost of parking a car into the cost of renting or owning a home—making cars more affordable but housing more expensive. Parking requirements limit homeownership opportunities in older cities by restricting the conversion of rental units to owner occupancy.
