Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about parking

Indianapolis spent $6.35 million on the Broad Ripple parking garage, and it's mostly empty. Photo: Midwest Constructors LLC

This Nearly-Empty Indianapolis Parking Garage Is an Epic Waste of Public Money

By Stephen Miller | May 30, 2017

Subsidized parking garages frequently turn into money-losing concrete bunkers on land better suited for something more productive than car storage. The Broad Ripple parking garage in Indianapolis, a pet project of former mayor Greg Ballard, is a spectacular example.

Car-free Pratt Street. Photo: Hartford Prints! on Instagram

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Downtown Hartford Marries Parking Meter Reform With Car-Free Streets

By Stephen Miller | May 8, 2017

Pratt Street is a narrow, one-way block-long street in the heart of downtown Hartford, Connecticut, lined with red brick pavers and historic storefronts. It's also the latest street in the United States to go car-free, at least some of the time, as part of the city's first agreement to spend parking meter revenue on local streetscape improvements.

The protected bike lane on Marshall Boulevard was downgraded to a buffered lane due to complaints about parking and other concerns. Photos: Steven Vance, Paolo Cisneros

The Backlash Against the Marshall Bike Lanes Serves as a Cautionary Tale for Planners

By John Greenfield | Apr 20, 2017 | 3 Comments

As the city strives to build more protected bikeways, this unfortunate episode underscores the need for CDOT to earn community buy-ins before construction and do extensive outreach afterward.

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Tesla’s Parking Problem Says a Lot About Elon Musk’s Brand of Tech Saviorism

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 14, 2017

It's fitting that the Palo Alto headquarters for Elon Musk's flagship company, Tesla, has an epic logistical problem caused by the spatial inefficiency of its core product.

The Park at Wrigley, looking south. Photo: John Greenfield

The New Park at Wrigley Takes Space Away from Cars and Gives It to People

By John Greenfield | Apr 11, 2017 | 2 Comments

The surface parking lot on the west side of the stadium has been transformed into the Park at Wrigley, a plaza and lawn that will function as public space for all Chicagoans when there aren’t events at the stadium.

Building the new parking spaces will involve flattening more of the embankment, eliminating green space and creating new impermeable surfaces. Image: Google Street View

Metra Will Build 68 Parking Spaces at Grayland Stop for About $17K a Pop

By John Greenfield | Mar 21, 2017 | 20 Comments

When you think about appropriate uses for federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement dollars, pouring asphalt to make more room for warehousing automobiles is not the first thing that comes to mind.

When the parked cars don't block the sidewalk, they're in danger of being struck by other drivers. And then there's the fire hydrant issue. Image: Google Street View

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Parking With Your Car Sticking Out Into the Road Is Foolish, but Is It Legal?

By John Greenfield | Mar 8, 2017 | 34 Comments

Streetsblog reader Deni Mayer contacted us yesterday about an unusual car parking conundrum is his neighborhood. Last summer he and his wife moved into a condo on the 100 block of West Delaware in the Gold Coast, between Clark and LaSalle and just west of Washington Square Park. It’s a narrow one-way westbound street, and […]

Walkable retail development would be easier to build under Austin's draft zoning revisions. Photo: Doorsteps

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Austin May Cut Parking Requirements By Nearly 50 Percent

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 1, 2017

Austin is in the process of overhauling its zoning code -- an initiative called CodeNext -- and one of the most promising aspects is a major reduction in parking requirements. If the current draft holds up, the effects on walkability, housing affordability, and water quality could be impressive.

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Why Do We Still Pay People to Drive to Work?

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 28, 2017

The federal government spends $7 billion annually subsidizing parking for car commuters -- almost as much as it spends annually on transit. No wonder cities are so congested. If we're going to cut traffic in major cities, parking subsidies have got to go.

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America Builds Way Too Much Parking Near Transit

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 1, 2017

We build parking that nobody ever uses because that's what American engineering standards recommend.

Even a booming city like Seattle still has a lot of land tied up in parking lots. Photo: The Urbanist

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The Case for a Tax on Parking Lots

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 18, 2017

Parking lots make cities less walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly. They crowd out space for housing. They erode the tax base. A few American cities have special taxes on surface parking lots that create an incentive for redevelopment, and Seattle is one of them. The trouble is, says Doug Trumm at The Urbanist, Seattle’s parking lot tax […]

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