Skip to Content
Streetsblog Chicago home
Log In
Streetsblog Chicago

How Shared Parking Can Reduce Housing Costs and Cut Traffic

11:58 AM CDT on October 6, 2017

To reduce the amount of new parking construction, Seattle may let residential buildings share excess parking with people who don’t live there. Photo: Lee/Flickr

Parking is expensive to build. It's particularly expensive in cities like Seattle, where space is limited and land costs are high.

Sound Transit will spend $100,000 per parking space, for instance, to build garages around its new suburban light rail stations. Now imagine baking costs like that into the construction of new housing -- that's what mandatory parking minimums do.

The political appetite for eliminating parking requirements is limited, however, so Seattle officials are taking an incremental approach, reports Dan Bertolet at Sightline.

In the Seattle region, King County Metro found that more than a quarter of residential parking spaces are unused, but current rules prevent the agency from using those empty spaces for park-and-ride purposes. Now the city is looking to change those rules to enable "greater sharing of parking in certain zones" [PDF]. The basic idea is to reduce the amount of parking in new construction by making more efficient use of existing parking, and the benefits could be substantial, Bertolet writes:

While Seattle’s current efforts to eliminate barriers to shared parking may have been catalyzed by the King County Metro’s park-and-ride ambitions, the city stands to gain much more. For one, using existing parking more efficiently helps recover the sunk costs of oversupplied parking. For another, underutilized parking can absorb new parking demand, so that future buildings can be constructed with fewer stalls. Developers can build confidently, knowing that tenants can find parking nearby. Municipalities can forgo huge parking structures. To summarize the benefits:

  • Cheaper and more abundant housing (parking stalls take up space and cost upwards of $40,000)
  • Improved urban livability through better urban design and architecture
  • Reduced car use and associated climate pollution
  • More walking, biking, and transit use

One concern about allowing shared parking is that it could backfire: developers might build extra parking to sell to people not residing in their building. Seattle’s proposal would address that concern by placing a 145-stall cap on shared parking in any one development. It’s an improbable scenario anyway, because in urban areas parking costs so much to construct that it’s still likely to be a money loser for developers, even counting the extra revenue from sharing.

More recommended reading today: The Natural Resources Defense Council shares a report on how to prevent improvements to transit or walkability from causing residential displacement. And Greater Greater Washington and Seattle Bike Blog are excited about the integration of dockless bike-share data into the Transit App trip planner.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Chicago

Bicycle-friendly politicians showed up in force for Bike Lane Uprising’s packed 6th anniversary fundraiser

Lawmakers Kelly Cassidy, Andre Vasquez, and Kam Buckner, plus BLU founder Christina Whitehouse, thanked the advocates present for their efforts to make cycling safer.

September 29, 2023

CTA blues: Musician and ex-bus driver Toronzo Cannon, shares his views on the agency’s labor challenges

Like many CTA workers, difficulties in the early days of COVID influenced Cannon's decision to retire. He says the transit unions need to do more to support their members.

September 28, 2023

Earth Rider Cycling closing in October after five years on Milwaukee Avenue

The closure of yet another local Chicago bike shop reflects a shifting and challenging market for small business owners.

September 28, 2023
See all posts