Parking Problem – Garages Not Necessarily The Answer

We’re still in thrall of our cars – at least older drivers are, and traffic congestion is the result.  It was initially thought that ride-shares would be a solution, but for now ride-shares are not helping to ease congestion. In fact they’re adding to it, as more cars enter cities, and drivers cruise around waiting for calls. So congestion and the parking problem remain…for now.  It seems as though it may change as fewer young people opt to buy cars – to protect the environment, save the cost of maintenance, fuel, and insurance … and the expense and frustration of car storage=parking.  Some cities are responding in an old-school way to traffic congestion and lack of parking by striving to add parking and build garages.  But younger people may turn the tide as they are opting for alternative transportation and mass transit. “Indeed, in the U.S. people under 30 are more than seven-times more likely to take public transportation than those over 60 years of age. Furthermore, over the past three decades, the percentage of younger people who apply for a driver’s license has dropped nearly 20 percent, according to the University of Michigan’s Transportation Institute.”

Smart city planners are rethinking parking by getting rid of it

Joni Mitchell sang, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” But could parking lots soon become extinct, with the lost paradise making a return?

As cities get smarter and mobility solutions and consumer habits change, more urban planners are eschewing the construction of public parking garages — or changing how they conceive of them altogether.

Read about it:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/smart-city-planners-are-rethinking-the-concept-of-parking/