https://www.wsj.com/articles/parking-problem-too-much-cities-e94dcecf?mod=us_lead_pos3
Meanwhile, garages are rarely full. A 2012 survey by real-estate firm Colliers International found downtown parking garages in most major U.S. and Canadian cities have at least 20% vacancy during weekdays and on weekends during special events.
For decades, American cities have had a parking problem: too much of it.
Countless residential parking spots go unused, and many downtown garages sit half empty. Ride-sharing and the rise of remote work during the pandemic have aggravated the trend. The average American drove 4% fewer miles in 2022 than in 2019, according to government statistics.
Recognizing this, cities are shrinking the number of spaces, freeing up the land for other uses, with far-reaching consequences.
Garages and parking lots are being demolished. New buildings now come with fewer spots. Major retailers are leasing unused spaces for new development. And local governments are scrapping decades-old minimum-parking rules for new buildings.
Urban planners and economists say this helps to reduce construction costs, hold down rents, relieve congestion, revitalize cities and mitigate the national housing shortage by making better use of some of the country’s most valuable land.
“The Dutch have reclaimed land from the sea, and I think we can reclaim land from parking,” said Donald Shoup, an urban planner at the University of California, Los Angeles who pioneered the field of parking research.
Any driver who has been late to an appointment for lack of a parking spot might be surprised to hear there is a parking glut. Economists, however, say expectations for inexpensive or free on-street parking create the appearance of scarcity when in fact spots often are plentiful nearby. Drivers prefer to circle the block looking for government-provided curbside parking rather than paying more in a privately owned garage. That adds to congestion.