Advice for a Post-Parking Mandate World

In an opinion piece in Next City, Tony Jordan, president of the Parking Reform Network, ponders the next steps after the elimination of minimum parking requirements, a trend sweeping cities around the country.

This is a big break for cities, Jordan writes.

It’s not often that policymakers have an opportunity to make a simple change that simultaneously makes it easier to build abundant affordable housing, helps small businesses, encourages transit use, is rock-solid climate action, and actually saves the city money.

But Jordan argues that cities need to do more than just get rid of parking mandates. “Remove them and over time a few more apartments will be built at the expense of space for a few cars, but without further effort we might see little impact, or even worse, a backlash and the return of mandatory car storage.”

Jordan offers some suggestions for going beyond repealing minimums: “Cities should price their curbs to manage demand and spend the revenue on infrastructure and programs that improve safe, convenient, and equitable access to our communities for people traveling by any mode, not just in their cars.”

Jordan explains the value of curb space and how cities can leverage that value to improve safety for pedestrians and drivers, reduce vehicle miles driven, repurpose space for uses other than parking, and generate revenue.