Don't say "Parking Requirements"
Instead use "Costly Parking Mandates"
The language we use evokes emotion and mental short cuts; we like to create coherent stories. Framing the story of parking reform in a compelling way will help us succeed.
🚨BREAKING🚨Austin Texas becomes the largest city in America to abolish minimum parking requirements city-wide!
Years of targeted and consistent organizing from our partners at the Austin Parking Reform Coalition helped make this victory possible. Advocacy works!
The French government is currently in the process of drafting legislation to help cities across the country transition away from what they call "ugly France".
A big part of that transition involves re-purposing the excessive parking lots dotting most suburban areas.
In the last 31 days:
🎉 Cambridge, MA
🎉 Culver City, CA
🎉 Lexington, KY
🎉 Nashville, TN (old city limits)
🎉Anchorage, AK
And next week Gainesville, FL will join the list 🎉
It’s happening, folks. It’s happening.
@NYCMayor
And last but not least, we'll ensure New York City's space is put to use for people, not for cars, by ending parking mandates for new housing across the entire city.
Costly car-centric policies destroyed what used to be vibrant and human-scaled American cities, and replaced them with a sea of parking lots.
The good news is that with sensible reforms we can rebuild and create more affordable, livable, and climate-adaptive cities for all 💪
Two down and 48+DC to go!
Congratulations to all the folks in California that made
#AB2097
possible!
But the work isn't done and parking reform is more than minimums. Join the Parking Reform Network and let's make this happen everywhere
We know of at least 24 cities in North America which have repealed all of their costly car parking mandates.* It's a growing list with cities of all sizes.
* Cities may still have parking requirements for a few specific uses or in special cases.
Costly parking mandates prioritize and subsidize car storage space over living space.
We can't afford to keep making life affordable for cars and unaffordable for people.
#BlackFridayParking
Ever thought about weird it is that most cities require bars to have parking ? One would think cities wanted to encourage drunk driving.
A more sensible approach would be to prioritize public and active transportation around bars.
🚨 Birmingham, Alabama eliminates costly parking mandates🚨
“Birmingham is now on track to be more walkable, bikeable, and transit accessible. This means a better city for all of us.”
- Mayor Randall L. Woodfin.
Parking mandates have gutted our cities and destroyed the many walkable communities we used to have.
Join us in challenging excessive and costly parking mandates by using
#BlackFridayParking
in our social media campaign this week!
More and more big cities are abolishing their costly parking mandates. Earlier this month Austin, TX became the largest American city to abolish their mandates citywide!
#BlackFridayParking
🚨 PARKING MAP UPDATE 🚨
New cities with no parking mandates:
San José, CA (983K)
Anchorage, AK (288K)
Gainesville, FL (140K)
Bend, OR (100K)
Corvallis, OR (58K)
Tigard, OR (55K)
Burlington, VT (42K)
Chattahoochee Hills, GA (3K)
The French government gets it. Parking reform unlocks so many possibilities. It can make your community more livable, more walkable, and more proximal.
For more than 70 years, parking mandates and mismanagement have gutted out cities and destroyed walkable communities.
Parking reforms clear hurdles so we can turn mall parking lots back into streetcar neighborhoods.
We need to build millions of new homes to tackle the housing crisis.
We won't be able to accomplish this if parking mandates keep forcing our cities to build excessive amounts of parking.
In early 2022 Germán Sierra wanted to open a small coffee shop in Dallas but the city told him he needed to build 18 parking spots to comply with city codes. It's more than a year later and the city still hasn't allowed him to open with less parking.
Two down and 48+DC to go!
Congratulations to all the folks in California that made
#AB2097
possible!
But the work isn't done and parking reform is more than minimums. Join the Parking Reform Network and let's make this happen everywhere
Ever thought about weird it is that most cities require bars to have parking ? One would think cities wanted to encourage drunk driving.
A more sensible approach would be to prioritize public and active transportation around bars.
@hankgreen
Oh Hank, be careful, once you see the horrible truth about arbitrary car parking mandates and what they’ve done to the world you will never be the same.
Tonight, on a 4-3 council vote, Eugene became the 9th Oregon city to repeal costly parking mandates citywide.
Eugene, pop. 175,000, is Oregon's 3rd most populous city.
Eight of Oregon's largest 12 cities have repealed their parking mandates.
@Parking_Reform
#ParkingReform
Top 30 known cities (and one country) with no parking mandates.
No. 14 (Richmond, VA) and 15 (Salem, OR) are the most recent additions, and they are both state capitals!
#shoupista
#parkingreform
Minimum parking requirements (mandated by cities) have decimated what used to be vibrant & human-scaled American cities.
So when it comes to parking, cities, in fact, don't know what's best for their community. They have a proven track record of mandating way too much parking.
People Over Parking Act prioritizes private developers’ interests over
#MnCities
'. Cities know what’s best for their communities. We will advocate against policy that allows developers to make parking decisions for cities. Read
@jmax692
in
@StribOpinion
:
Excess parking ruins cities:
➡️ It robs us of proximity, adding unnecessary space between vital services
➡️ Consumes valuable urban land, reducing housing supply & hiking prices
➡️ Increases car dependency, making cities less livable
Daniel is absolutely right! Who would have thought, even just 5 years ago, that a car-centric city like Austin would abolish parking mandates?
The truth is that if your city is serious about tackling the housing crisis, minimum parking requirements just have to go.
1) Parking reform is snowballing. It's arguably at the center of the most significant wave of local land-use reforms in North America in over half a century.
Last week Austin, TX lifted their costly parking mandates, this week Taylor, TX (pop: 16K) did it too!
Big cities, small cities, red states blue states, cold places, warm places... parking reform is for everyone.
Just in: Oregon’s groundbreaking statewide parking reforms survive initial legal challenge as court denies motion to stay implementation of CFEC rules.
Starting January 1st cities will not be able to deny no-parking development within 1/2 mile of high quality transit!
The small village of Muir, MI, adopted its first-ever zoning code, which includes a 'Zoning Bill of Rights'. It enshrines the right of every property owner to determine their own parking needs.
This makes Muir the newest addition to our "No parking mandates" club, welcome 😎
Two down and 48+DC to go!
Congratulations to all the folks in California that made
#AB2097
possible!
But the work isn't done and parking reform is more than minimums. Join the Parking Reform Network and let's make this happen everywhere
By mandating parking for every new building, we're
inducing demand for the most carbon-intensive transportation mode. Abolishing parking mandates is key to addressing the climate crisis.
@QuintonLucasKC
Why stop there, Mayor Q? Cities around the country are ending these costly mandates for all uses. The biggest benefit is ending them for new homes. Get in touch if we can help!
Just talked to our members and partners in Austin, TX to congratulate them for the city council voting 10-1 to eliminate parking mandates citywide!
There’s still work to be done to pass the implementation, but this is a momentous step forward.
Sim City designers looked at parking reqs for grocery stores and decided to abolish mandates in the game.
“We quickly realized there were way too many parking lots in the real world and that our game was going to be really boring if it was proportional in terms of parking lots.”
Don't say: "Free Parking"
Instead use" Subsidized Parking"
The language we use evokes emotion and mental short cuts; we like to create coherent stories. Framing the story of parking reform in a compelling way will help us succeed.
What metro areas have the highest economic output, productivity and wages?
A. The ones with the least downtown surface parking.
My new rpt: "America's Urban Future, Post-Pandemic"
Phone friendly pdf:
@Parking_Reform
@DonaldShoup
🚨BREAKING🚨Austin Texas becomes the largest city in America to abolish minimum parking requirements city-wide!
Years of targeted and consistent organizing from our partners at the Austin Parking Reform Coalition helped make this victory possible. Advocacy works!
We are in the midst of a housing crisis, and yet we make it illegal to build housing over large segments of our city's most valuable land. There's absolutely no reason it has to continue to be like this.
Because of costly parking mandates, two-thirds of this new commercial area in Regina 🇨🇦 is now dedicated to car storage. As a consequence, this community will lose out on walkability, livability, and financial solvency.
#BlackFridayParking
📢 Last night, Longmont became the first city in Colorado to eliminate minimum parking mandates citywide!
Not only that, but they replaced them with parking maximums to prevent developers from building too much parking.
This is a big win for housing, climate & sustainable
@davidhogg111
It’s our whole mission, David! Let’s chat and keep the movement growing. 60+ cities in 5 years… statewide reforms on the horizon. Parking reform has momentum.
Don't say: "Parking"
Instead use: "Car Storage"
The language we use evokes emotion and mental short cuts; we like to create coherent stories. Framing the story of parking reform in a compelling way will help us succeed.
It’s happening. These mandates are outdated and ridiculous.
Austin, TX has no mandates, why does Austin, MN need a rule that literally requires parking for employees of PARKING GARAGES?
You can’t make it up, you can’t make it right, you just gotta repeal it.
Every city across the country has excess parking thanks to zoning laws that have forced developers to build too much. It's time to end these costly parking mandates.
#BlackFridayParking
Costly parking mandates make it illegal to build walkable and financially solvent cities. Imagine what Manhattan would look like today if it had to adhere to the typical parking requirements.
#BlackFridayParking
If the Empire State Building had to adhere to Cupertino, CA's parking requirements, the surface parking lot would cover 12 city blocks or 2.541 million square feet!
Congratulations to Raleigh which joins an ever growing list of cities that have made this critical and sensible decision. Great work!
We will be updating our map this week to reflect this and several other reports!
Raleigh eliminated parking minimums and established maximums citywide.
Parking minimums increase costs of housing, goods and services and are bad for the environment.
Eliminating parking minimums doesn’t eliminate parking, but it does prioritize people over car storage.
#ralpol
It could have been a paradise down here in San Pedro, CA, but they put a parking lot! Not voluntarily of course, but because parking mandates forced the developers to build an excessive amount.
#BlackFridayParking
We couldn't say this better ourselves!
@RepRobertGarcia
makes a great case for freedom from costly parking mandates. Let's get this done!!
Ask your Congressional rep to support People Over Parking by co-sponsoring
#HB3145
cc:
@DonaldShoup
I’ve submitted the People over Parking Act, a bill that eliminates parking minimums across the country in transit rich zones. We are in a housing crisis and eliminating parking requirements lowers costs to build. It’s good housing & climate policy. Let’s get this done.
Before car dominance, our streets were lined with shops, offices, and apartments, all housed in grand buildings. Decades of mandating parking and building freeways decimated our cities. Let's re-legalize walkable communities.
The lead designer of SimCity decided to abolish parking mandates because otherwise the "game was going to be really boring if it was proportional in terms of parking lots.”
It's also true IRL, no one wants to live in city that's just parking lots.
Celebrating 3 years without off-street parking mandates in South Bend!
Another year of not missing them. Another year smoothing the way for more affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization.
@Parking_Reform
@RepRobertGarcia
Fantastic speech, Representative! There is no rational defense of costly and arbitrary parking mandates.
Let's build more living space and less parking space.
Don't say: "Removing Parking"
Instead: Describe how the space will better serve the community.
The language we use evokes emotion and mental short cuts; we like to create coherent stories. Framing the story of parking reform in a compelling way will help us succeed.
Excess parking is a failure for land use policy, the climate, wildlife, municipal finances, livability, and public health. Let's end costly parking minimums and revitalize our cities!
#BlackFridayParking
In 2016, the population of Des Moines, IA was 215,000 people, while the city had 1.613 million parking spaces, enough to hold 43% of all motor vehicles in the state.
Austin, TX—a city with just as much car-dependence and even more sprawl as Asheville—has just voted to eliminate parking mandates from its zoning code.
What does it all have to do with housing abundance? Suprisingly, a lot:
It's nice to be on the right side of history.
It's even nicer to be one of the first to realize which side of history is right.
#Raleigh
#Durham
#YIMBYTown
Every empty, crumbling parking lot is a lost opportunity for community space, green areas, or housing. We need less pavement and more engagement.
#EarthDay2024
#ParkingReform