ABSTRACT
Free parking would push buildings farther apart, increase the cost of houses and hotels, and permit fewer of them to be built at all. Parking will always be free where land is plentiful and cheap, but it is a grave mistake to think parking should be free everywhere. Off-street parking requirements might be worth their enormous cost if their sole consequence were to force everyone to pay for parking indirectly through higher prices for everything else. In a car-owning democracy, off-street parking requirements suit the basic values of most people, who do not see—or do not want to see—the long-term social, economic, and environmental costs of ubiquitous free parking. If cities begin to charge market prices for curb parking and spend the revenue to improve neighborhoods, future generations are unlikely to view this enclosure as diminishing anyone’s personal responsibility for the community or unfairly dispossessing motorists of their ancient commoning rights.
