What is Parking Reform?

Parking Reform is the use of policies and activism to discourage the building of too much parking supply and encourage more cost efficient and sustainable management of existing parking supply (usually by pricing parking).

Why should we reform parking policy?

For generations our policies and actions have required or encouraged
building massive numbers of parking spaces in the Houston.
Conservatively, for every one of the more than 3.2 million automobiles
registered in the Harris County there are at least 3 parking spaces.

All of that parking has impacts that have shaped our cities and altered our atmosphere.

• Parking spaces are expensive. A cheap structured stall costs $20,000 and in many cities $40K-$60K per stall is common. Underground parking can easily double the per-stall cost. As a general rule, $10,000 in construction costs adds $100/mo in needed rents. Conventional parking minimums can increase the rent or mortgage required for an apartment or house by $200-$500 per month.

• Car parking takes up lots of space! A parking space itself takes up about 180 square feet, but when ramps, driveways, and access paths are taken into account, it’s closer to 300 square feet per stall. Many jurisdictions require more than one space per home, particularly for townhouses and single family homes. In new apartments, the space taken for parking cars takes away from the space that could be housing people. In suburban communities, surface lots prevent walkable design and lead to sprawl.

• Car parking encourages more car ownership and more driving. When people can cheaply and easily park their cars, they’ll use them more often. When, because of parking lots, it’s difficult to walk somewhere, then driving and parking might be the only choice. When most people drive, it’s difficult to generate the density and demand for good transit service. Parking is never really free; the choice is between paying for it directly, through user fees, or indirectly through higher rents (for residential parking), lower wages (for commuter parking), and higher taxes (for on-street parking). Paying directly is more efficient and fairer, and help achieve strategic planning goals. Compared with cost-recovery pricing (motorists pay directly for the costs of building and operating parking facilities), unpriced parking typically increases vehicle trips by 10-30%, indicating that underpriced parking increases urban traffic congestion, crashes and pollution emissions by this amount.

• Car parking makes our communities less equitable. Parking requirements force car-free (and car-lite) households to pay for costly parking spaces they don’t need, and since vehicle ownership tends to increase with income, this often forces lower-income households to subsidize the parking costs of their more affluent neighbors.