Why American Cities Have So Much Parking - Cheddar Explains 

It’s everything. Zoning is a major obstacle to walkability, but even still, nobody will walk when everything is perforated with surface parking lots.

Correct. But Minimum Parking Laws, COMBINED with strict Zoning Laws, and other archaic Land-Use Regulations ALL contribute to this problem.

​@@birdrocket Parking minimums exists as a result of restrictive zoning and other regulatory measures (building height restrictions, etc), and are relatively new compared to zoning, which came into existence in the 1920s. In naturally mixed use cities, there is barely any space left for parking to even begin with.

@@aliquewilliams3080 Houston, famous for no zoning, still has parking minimums.

@@Jack-fw4mw Houston has far worse restrictive building laws than zoning.

Also 30% more people died due to cars, nice

@@tedarcher9120 the research I have seen about this was due to increased speeds from fewer drivers on roads that were not designed for those speeds. I attached a a video that explains this and more in good detail and entertainingly. It is unrelated to small streets going pedestrian only. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ORzNZUeUHAM.html Honestly not just bikes is incredible in general, feel free to watch more of his videos as well Hope you enjoy it!

On top of less traffic from COVID I feel half of of the parking is made for holiday shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas; which 20 years ago is where much of retail profits came from; so it was necessary to invest in this parking. However now with online shopping becoming more prevalent the need for "surge parking" during these times is a lot less than what it used to be. So even once the pandemic subsides, I don't believe parking needs are what they once were.

In CA it's a waste of parking lot space. They erect enclosures that aren't any better or more well ventilated than indoor dining. I'd argue indoor is safer because the air-conditioning at least has filters.

But due to less traffic in general people drove faster and they had more deadly accident per mileage.

I've lived in the Netherlands my entire life, and I always had the idea that I'd go get a driving licence whenever I reached the point in my life where I would need a car. I turned 30 last week, and that still hasn't happened yet. Obviously the pandemic has made me travel a lot less, but before that I would commute to work by train, walk to the supermarket every day, and do all other journeys on foot, by bike, or by public transport. Never really felt like I needed a car.

@@rjfaber1991 hope you had a good birthday I’ve been to the Netherlands it is extremely well organised with public transportation

Two weeks after moving to Paris, I drove my car back home to Germany and returned by high speed train the next day. Parking was 80 EUR a week, and I never needed the car anyways. I sold it 10 months later.

@@alexbur6021 I intend to properly celebrate it once we're out of lockdown, but thank you! And yes, you are right. We like to moan about trains running late and buses getting stuck in traffic here, but compared to other countries, we have it really well here.

and judging how parisians are grumpy you can see that happiness is not generated by public transportation at all

@@Abraham-yd7iq as an American who now lives in the netherlands, he's totally right. Whenever I go back to visit, I just get frustrated by how terrible US transportation infrastructure is. The Dutch are the best in the world at designing around people, and SHOULD be the gold standard, instead of cities like Copenhagen or Portland. The differance is night and day.

Check out eco gecko as well!

@@therealallpro Oh Ive had a lot of their stuff in my recommended, its about time I check them out really.

@@tahimig1 Im from Belgium which is arguably one of the worst places in Europe in terms of city design, yet I still feel pitiful for Americans.

@@Abraham-yd7iq I do agree with notjustbikes but the thing is, the Netherlands is roughly the size of New Jersey in the states so it’s a bit difficult to really compare. However, I do think it is time for a change in the US. Hopefully we will see more beautiful cities and good infrastructure in the coming decades :)

Yup exactly. RIP The Pacific Electric Railway Company. :(

Thank the automobile industry!

Same thing in Detroit :(

Last time I went to LA, the subway/train system was great? And it's getting better...

@@dickriggles942 He's talking about the original streetcar network. It was all torn up along with those in the rest of the US.

In Europe you often find shopping centers in the cities where the parking is underground with the shopping above. And that parking serves not just the people visiting the shopping but also the adjacent areas. It is very inefficient when every single business has to have it's own parking and increases the distances between the businesses. Some of the more lively streets in Europe are the ones full of restaurants and shops. Usually in streets closed to cars. Those streets are always full of people. Those businesses don't need to worry about parking.

Underground parking can be a lot more expensive. (I mean, the construction cost is higher. When you factor in the cost of land, it's not necessarily more expensive in high-demand areas.)

@@seneca983 Also issues with the ground itself. This would be impossible in most of Florida with its shallow water table

Cost. Underground parking is around $30k - $50k per spot, and the deeper underground you go, the more expensive it is. Above ground parking structures are cheaper but still about $12K - $30k per spot. Surface parking is like $2k to $5k per spot. This is why apartments and condos with underground parking are so expensive. Why most development with Minimum Parking Requirements use more land and sprawl. Large parking lots with wide buildings, thus, big box stores.

What country do you live in??

Yes, what area?

In England there are parking maximums, not minimums.

@@gavinathling most of Europe that is the zoning laws yes.

I live in Sweden and the last time my dad came to visit me he wanted to take the car to a downtown area instead of the bus or the bicycle. I think he spent about as much time finding parking as it would have taken us to just take the bus :P

It's sad that what's left of Astroworld is just a parking lot for the Rodeo.

that's one thing I really like about living here. no matter what part of the city u r in u have access to a train or bus . Also I think they should keep the out door restaurant thing on the street it makes the city feel more cozy especially in Manhattan and Brooklyn as it looked really nice and make those street fully pedestrian.

@@shaddythewiz3836 I live in the city as well and there is great public transit if you want to get to Manhattan. If you want to get from one of the outer boroughs to the other you have to drive or it will take a long time. The outer boroughs do have subway lines but they all go through Manhattan first so it ends up being slower than driving. I live in queens and I am a 15 minute drive away from my job in the Bronx. If I wanted to take public transit, it would take an hour long bus ride on two buses, or an hour and a half long subway ride on multiple trains.

@@Not_Sal yeah I live in queens but closer to Brooklyn but compared to some other cities I've been too if I wanted to be car free I'll choose this city. but we do need to improve for example better connect to Staten island as it very hard to get from the other bouroghs to there. and atleast one line directly from the bronx to queen and Brooklyn to queens.

@@shaddythewiz3836 A tunnel under the narrows for the SIRR would be fantastic, and the only thing that'd make it better is connecting Tottenville to the New Jersey Transit Coast Line. Maybe restore the old rail route around the north of the Island too while they're at it, much of it's still intact though about 2 miles of track would need to be rebuilt from heritage park to St. George.

I feel the same, I live in Los Angeles and while it's still a requirement to have a car or else you're limited to where you can go (thanks sprawl) the city has done things to make it more walkable and transit friendly but it's still a lon ways to go since car culture continues and people still are buying cars and driving into congested freeways.

First you invest in usable public transportation, both inter and intra city. Then the cars become unnecessary for most.

There's no need. Loss of parking minimums will allow parking spots to be properly appropriated according to demand. As parking spots dwindle, supply goes down and prices go up. Eventually the remaining parking spots will be able to charge enough to cover the actual land value cost.

Except that if there is a home within walking distance of something it's value is sky high and unaffordable. Though possibly because it's rare for anything to be within walking distance of something.

@@sor3999 That means there is a SHORTAGE of these types of developments, which has been the type of developments people had been building for thousands of years. This all comes down to zoning, if zoning doesn't allow residences to be built where businesses are located and vice versa, people have to drive. If the area is built to accommodate cars at the expense of people/transit, people will drive. If you want to make walkable developments affordable, then you need to allow these developments to be built, which in most parts of the US they are literally illegal. That is why there is a shortage. Historically people were poorer and yet they all lived in walkable cities/towns. There's no reason why that cannot be the case today.

Then we should move most of Florida's population to a place that can support human life

Ugh, VAs auto centrism is no more obvious than in the DC metro area. Crossing the river from DC/MD in VA is like going into a foreign country.

It should be something dictated by the market, not enforced through zoning laws.

@@jascrandom9855 If that were true, the whole world would be paved over for profit. Nope.

@@EudaemoniusMarkII Wut? That's not how it goes. Not even in Favelas.

@@EudaemoniusMarkII Wut? That's not how it goes. Not even in Favelas.

As a Phoenician, this is how I feel after I watch almost any video on this subject.

You're not cutting out any access. Removing parking minimums allows the land use to be optimized according to demand. Businesses and owners are free to determine how much parking they really need and repurpose the excess for other more effective uses.

That would drive the cost of Building anything even higher. Parking space isn't going to be eliminated all together, just reduced to what's really needed. Cities should be prioritizing their own resident's quality of life rather than the convenience of visitors.

That is still a significant cost and would not be justifiable for most developments. Eliminating minimum parking would allow business owners and developers to decide the most productive use of land.

They'll still go there because they'll have to anyways. Parking wouldn't be outright eliminated. Need better public transportation.

NYC is expensive due to zoning restricts preventing further developments. When you arbitrarily prevent development, you reduce supply causing prices to rise. This is the main issue with housing affordability throughout the United States.

These parking lots are sucking city finances dry. They dont produce much tax revenue for the city, yet the city still has maintain services.

Someone has to pay for that real estate. It's either high parking prices or redevelopment for residential or business

You don't need parking if you can walk/bike/bus/train to wherever it is you need to go.

@@taoliu3949 when it's small and light, sure. But even then, quite the hassle to bring a bunch of bags like that.

​@@brbtrg I mean, depends on what you're doing. You learn to avoid shopping sprees and keep it small and light. But if you do go on a shopping spree for whatever reason, many people just hail a cab. Some people bring a cart, and others have bicycles/mopeds/motorcycles that can carry more stuff. It's not going to be something you do everyday, so it doesn't really become a huge issue.

@@taoliu3949 the way you describe it only makes it look like a pain, which IMO it is. Nice that it works for you, but I don't like being limited in how much I'm 'allowed' to buy. And worrying EVERY SINGLE TIME about how on earth I'll be transporting something, no thank you. Life's just way too short for all of that. Speaking of which, it saves lots of time and energy to buy more stuff in one go.

@@brbtrg So why should others be forced to subsidized your want to drive? What about people who don't drive? Should we force everyone to buy a car because every business/residence is force to accommodate cars? You are still free to drive if you so wish, but people should not be forced to accommodate you just because you want to drive. And you act like driving doesn't have its downsides. Being forced to own a car incurs a HUGE amount of cost on the owner. Not everyone wants/can afford a car. Not everyone CAN DRIVE a car. You talk like people can't figure out how to transport goods without a car. Heads up, people have been doing it without a car since the dawn of man, and most people around the world are still doing it this way. You're basically saying businesses should be forced to accommodate drivers and everyone should be forced to buy a car and drive, all to make it easier for you to drive. Talk about self entitlement.

not exactly true. Even if you go to New York City, San Francisco, or Savannah Georgia its easy to see how walkable they are compared to other cities or suburban places.

@@greenmachine5600 eh, I live in DC, one of the most walkable places in north america, and we still deal with far higher rates of pedestrians killed by errant drivers than the rest of the developed world. Because DC, like New York, San Francisco and Savannah, is surrounded by suburban sprawl, and our streets are designed to prioritize suburban commuters rather than safe or pleasant neighborhood streets. And until quite recently, DC had the problem identified in the video, hundreds of acres of prime land dedicated to parking lots. Even today, my car pays a whopping $50 per year to occupy some of our finite and precious public space. My rent, otoh, is, uhh, more. American policy at every turn subsidizes automobile dependency.

Por ejemplo, Milton Keynes is a small city widely regarded in Britain as being their worst example of car dependent 1960s urban planning. But if it were in the US, it'd probably rank in the top 10% in terms of walkability.

@@London755 hello from a fellow Washingtonian. I’m a European expat, being living here for the last 6 years and I second every single statement you’ve just made about our so called walkable city. Dc is a city with superior architecture and wonderfully preserved green spaces, that being said its car centric design, (highway size roads forming a soul crushing grid), makes it very repellant from a European perspective.

@@London755 British people HATE Milton Keynes. That city is known to be a MASSIVE FAILURE that should never be repeated.

Cheddar too.

Not just bikes perfectly explains why cartraffic is just harmful to cities.

Oyóu pow70 pop

Exactly what I was thinking. NotJustBikes changed my perspective on cities and made me realize why I hate suburbia so much.

@@mattwinward3168 I highly recommend city beautiful too. Notjustbikes did recommended him too.

True. But if the American future lies in automobiles, wouldn't electric vehicles eliminate the problem of car dependency?

Most of the urban renewal was just slum clearance, and by slum clearance, I mean minority removal

Yeah I feel like this video does not address one core issue which is that when you’re driving, it feels like there’s no parking

EXACTLY! 😂😂

It’s geometric truth. The more parking you add, the less convenient each individual space becomes (can’t park for 3 errands at the same spot, etc.). Eventually you add so much parking that you need more parking spots because each site needs its own lot!

"Too much" because the open spaces cost 25 USD for 2 hours so people try to find other places to park.

There should be ample free parking wherever I go and if there's not I will never go there.

Automobile production industry fucked everyone over in the 50s

yes but also parking minimums and garage requirements

In Asia, businesses and residential are mixed.

Regulation made the problem, the only solution is complete deregulation

Also housing prices, being in any urban area is so prohibitively expensive now a days that most people are forced to move well out of urban centers because they can't afford to live in them, and outside urban centers public transportation is minimal at best.

I just found that channel yesterday. I watched several in a row. Very good channel.

If you like this or not just bikes, check out eco gecko's playlist on suburbanism!

@@warw I'm there now. Thanks!

As someone who also lives in Amsterdam and watches his videos I can say that I got to love my city again

@@ASS_ault Biased?! He lived in many cities around the world so he has experiance, and he is not even Dutch, he is Canadian. How can you call him biased?!

Well in Toronto, we do the same thing but for architecturally unpleasing glass condos instead of parking lots

@@daelbows5783 I dont like those either, but I'd rather have *SOMETHING* than a large flat empty lot surrounded by chain link fencing...

Much like how they similarly tore down neighborhoods to build interstate freeways?

@@Stratelier most likely. My mind always goes to the neat mid century buildings that they say theyre going to tear down and I'm like "okay what are you going to replace it with?" and its just a gaping plot of land. I wouldnt have a problem if it contributed to the landscape... But NOTHING? thats not cool

hate that so many cities are willing to tear down their historical architecture instead of renovating & restoring. It seems the only reason is money and it has nothing to do with wanting to live in a beautiful, welcoming city. When did we become okay with such ugly cities, horribly congested routes, and a reluctance to walk/bike any sort of distance. The stuck up attitude towards those who use public transportation also doesn't help.

Sure, just great to be forced to lug around the stuff you just bought for miles ON FOOT in a country where it's always cold, windy, and rainy. And then I'm completely ignoring the part where Amsterdam is absolutely shite to begin with.

@@brbtrg Aha, soo glad you do not live here. You wouldn't stand a chance. LOL

I've been to Bordeaux once and there you can reach almost any part of the city with a tram or bus. It was a huge change of experience since I live in Ireland and here most people rely on cars as well because the public transport is pretty underdeveloped.

@@brbtrg you know that exists backpacks and carts? And you can bring them on buses and trams, and if don’t want walk, also bicycles have baskets to put in the groceries

There is space for the car. Leave it at the perimeter of the city and walk. Bruges (Brugge) is great like this. Horses for courses as we say in the UK.

Pay to park

The root problem isn't parking. Parking is a result of zoning laws, which separated commercial from residential areas.

@@aliquewilliams3080 Parking is secondary. Land use zoning is what separated residential from commercial. Parking minimums just aggravates the situation by forcing everything to commondate cars.

She could've shown a better example, but at least she advertised her home -town 🤷‍♂️.

not really from what I've seen...

@@greenmachine5600 Well I meant downtown Vancouver, but even beyond there, we really don't have all that many surface parking lots in Vancouver, and most of them are either being turned into high rise projects or are near highways. We make up for it with ample street parking and underground parkades though.

Tbf Americans think this because it's basically the only people desperate enough to use the crumby public transit. My experience growing up as a poor American kid .

Also, many of the multi-storey parking garages have stores/restaurants on the street-facing side which makes the streets more walkable and more useful to people (and probably more profitable to the owners, which isn't a bad thing if it means we don't get ugly cities)

Wtf

Lmao who approve that idea they must be the dumbest people in the world!

Lmao who approve that idea they must be the dumbest people in the world!

Lmao who approve that idea they must be the dumbest people in the world!

*Not Just Bikes "No just bike" sounds a bit like a bicycle with ethical issues. 😂

City Beautiful is great too

Yeah, Minneapolis has done a great job converting parking spaces to development. It just makes sense, and I haven't had any harder of a time finding parking downtown. Sometimes I'll even take the train now since it's more convenient!

Minneapolis is one of the cities leading the charge but a large amount of other cities are very backwards in their thinking

Just because buildings are being built on the parking lots doesn't necessarily mean the parking is going away. Downtown LA has had skyscrapers built on top of old parking lots, but usually those buildings are on top of multiple levels of above or underground parking.

@@PASH3227 Minneapolis has done the same thing, I just didn’t include that in my comment. It’s definitely a good thing compared to having just a parking lot.

@@PASH3227 Minneapolis is actually removing parking minimums though. LA is just starting to talk about it, and only for their downtown area.

It depends on how/when the town was built. You can have good public transportation and/or pedestrian oriented development even in small towns. Historically every town/city was pedestrian oriented because everything had to be in walking distance. Go to various town/suburbs' historic town centers and its obvious.

Your house has a more than one room (I'm assuming) why would you do that? It's extremely wasteful. You only need one room to live in. Just have your bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and living room in one small room only big enough for you to live in. This way more people will have a place that stay! Can you see how asinine your statement is? There's that many parking spots because that's what they wanted to build. They bought the land. Not you. They pay the taxes. Not you. They paid for it to built. So why does it matter to you what they do with their land?

@@dominick253 Didn't you watch the video? Parking spaces are mandated for (new) shops, which actively prevents businesses to open their shops where they want and reduces the business owners freedom to "only" cater those people who are in walkable distance to their shop. Basically it is heavy state-interference in the free market without any good reason at all. In Trier, the city in Germany were I live, there are 3 supermarkets within an five minute walk from my flat. None of these supermarkets offer parking at all and only serve the direct neighborhood they are in; although in fairness there are some quite expensive parking garages nearby which are usually used by people from more rural surroundings to visit the pedestrian zone of Trier or by "general" tourists. It would be stupid to drive there to buy groveries as at the edges of Trier there are supermarkets with big, free parking lots. But all three supermarkets would be illegal to open in the US. And yes, modern cities are still / again planned this way as the 70s and 80s showed that car-centric city centers are horrible environments for the people actually living or shopping in these urban areas. So more and more roads, were feasable, are redeveloped into car-free or car-reduced areas again. Amsterdam does quite an good job at this. They relocated the parking lots at the edge of citys and connected them via good public transport to the city center and converted these once busy and uninviting city roads into enyoable public space again. Because in rural areas cars are often the best (and often only feasable) transport method and these people should still be able to visit the city /work there.

That’s true the only reason you need your car is if you going to a different city or driving to places like a mountain or national park for camping etc.

Thats the problem. Every parking garage is built for surge capacity so most parking spots sit empty most of the time. The mall is busy, but the office parks are empty. Also goes around to what other commenters are saying with bad land-use policy separating out our cities.

The only constellation is that they didn’t bulldoze lower Manhattan. I wonder what stopped them.

@@MyCamilla1989 well, Robert Moses almost did.

The term “shut down by politicians” is inadequate. To simply not accept a proposal with such innovative or pioneering ideas and benefits is ridiculous. Any politician whoever says that should be removed from control of the office immediately on grounds of incapacity for function of intellectual property of the people.

@@maxnewts the biggest opponent of mass transit was the Oakland county executive L Brooks Patterson. That guy was hell bent on dropping any attempt to build a regional transit network claiming Oakland county residents would be paying for busses they don't need. I'm sure he would have ended the suburban transit network if he had the power too.

Without massiv help Detroit is done.

What about the Q-Line?

Well, it's really not a stretch to assume detroit politicians are bought by the car industry.

That's the point, much of these parking spaces are unused throughout the day, it is a huge waste of precious land resources. Why build parking lots when you can build houses where people can actually live and walk to where they need to go. People not only have to drive less, the city also receives more in tax revenue that can be used to support various city services.

Hopefully things change for the better here.

South korea doesnt have the amount of crime we do. Stop comapring your countries to the usa. What works in south korea doesnt mean it works somewhere else

@@diegoflores9237 This may be news to you, but the US isn't the only country with crime...

@@diegoflores9237 I'm US born and raised. But have lived in 5 different countries outside of the US. All had things that are way better than the US, and easy to adapt in the US. We don't have to keep horrible systems for no reason.

@@diegoflores9237 The video is not about crime, its about parking....lol. And yes...there is crime in S.Korea. And when government officials are corrupt.....they get ousted by the population. Same with corporate big wigs. Something the US is in desperate need of.

Public transport sucks ass, why would I spend way more time waiting for a bus that I still have to walk my happy ass to and from, when I can just drive wherever I want to go.

How would that be possible in the U.S. when it’s so huge? Am I really going to ride a bike for 2 hours to get to the closest grocery store?

Xavier Rozi that's the problem, the cities aren't built for public transportation, for example, I can go to the mall, many small shops and stores in just a few minutes (I'm from Italy)

@@lucabralia5125 I currently live in the city (unfortunately) and I still wouldn't be able to ride a bike to work or most other things if I wanted to. Could I? Sure. Would it make sense? Nope.

@@hankidan yes, that's the point, because where you are currently the transportation system is bad, it's not logical to use it, but if it gets improved it would benefit you

We need more parking in Portland and the freeways widened they keep wasting money on public transportation and max when more people have cars which won’t ever change since the economy was built on driving.

@@1jlbuech Then why is MAX the 4th busiest Light Rail system in the country? Widening the freeways will just encourage more people to drive, worsening congestion, and displacing more people, all while increasing pollution.

So leave the car at home.

Buses are designed not to be destroyed by homeless people, drunks and kids; they're not for luxury riders.

No need. A walkable city with properly funded public transit system would see it's busses/trains constantly replaced overtime.

It really doesn’t matter how nice they make the busses, as long as they’re full of homeless and smelly dirty people no one else will want to ride them.

@@danieldaniels7571 I've done it quite a few times in major cities and had no problems. Some lines in some cities are terrible though.

@@dickriggles942 I’ve done it several times, and while I have had no significant problems, it was a disgusting environment and nothing I’d want to do willingly as long as I have the means to drive instead.

And they send nuclear waste to Russia, in the end both countries lose and only politicians gain profit.

@@FlymanMS And whoever pays them handsomly. I can't even properly look up who pays them for nonesense like this, because transparency has to be optional I guess.

I know nothing about German politics but it's not the first time when a party / political organisation has a name which is in direct opposition of their actual political goals I cringe everytime I see "family" in an organisation's name. Maybe it's my bad luck but I've came across many which are very anti family. Or anti any family that doesn't match their very narrow idea of a "real" family. Like for example a family made of atheists

@@angelikaskoroszyn8495 The ruling party calls itself christian as well as democratic and is the most corrupt in the parliament. In that case they are more like the catholic church then the faith.

But where would people park?

@@KingPigeon891 less parking slot means cars in circulations, so buses and trams wouldn’t get stuck in traffic and becomes much more viables solutions, so a lot more would take public transports to go to work/shopping. And also walking and biking around would become much more safer and enjoyable

@@KingPigeon891 they wouldn’t! They would take public transportation, walk or bike.

@@KingPigeon891 if you mean by parking cars build underground parking spaces or turn cars that consume fossil fuel then melt them down gradually and turn the melted down metal in something useful or use expand public transportation like they’re doing in places like Tokyo and Scandinavian countries

Could park and then take transit like they mentioned. Some lines are as frequent as 5 or 10 minutes. Also with ridesharing & curbside pickup, facilities wouldn’t need as much parking. And it wasn’t a matter of completely taking parking out of play.

Based

What if I hated this video? And hate bicyclist. They never follow the laws and always play the victim.

@@dominick253 nevermind that drivers statistically break road rules more often than cyclists.. just blame the cyclists lol. gonna complain about road tax and lycra next?

Not the buildings, the parking spaces

Baltimore underwent the same decline as most US cities. They tore up their streetcar network and replaced it with buses, only to see it neglected due to city finances and sprawl. Even today, it's still facing the same issue with sprawl, the city's population has declined but its suburbs have grown.