A new tool from TransForm shows where parking is underutilized in the Bay Area, even finding wasted space in a city as notorious for parking difficulties as San Francisco.
Rachel Dovey shares the details of Oakland-based non-profit TransForm, which launched a new database last week to help show that "parking structures in Northern California’s urban core are actually underutilized..." Dovey describes how the tool works:
The tool, called the GreenTrip Parking Database, overlays multifamily housing data on Google Maps, focusing primarily on high-growth areas like the East and South Bay. With over 65 complexes shown, users can filter information into sub-categories (to find only buildings with a certain number of units, say, or only buildings located in a certain city). Each tailored search brings up a page with parking information: the number of spaces allotted per unit, the number of spaces actually being used and then, most significantly, the cost of that unused space.
The article also includes information on how TransForm created the database.
Read the full story: New Tool Maps Bay Area’s Expensive, Unused Parking
Austin Ends Parking Minimums
The city approved changes called for by a May resolution that eliminate parking requirements in all neighborhoods.
Parking Reform Pays Off With Lower Rent Costs
Research continues to show that adjusting parking requirements to align with demand can lower the cost of housing.
Norman, Oklahoma Eliminates Parking Mandates
The city made a subtle, one-word change that frees up developers to build parking based on actual need and eliminates costly unnecessary parking.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Northwest rail fans eager for Sept. 30 debut of Amtrak’s Airo fleet
Get ready for that new train smell and more seats. But they won’t go faster or run more frequently on the Cascades route in Washington and Oregon.
St. Louis Metro to test if single-car trains can reduce operating costs, maintain rider satisfaction
The pilot program will run from October to spring 2027, and begin with one single-car train operating on Metrolink’s Red and Blue lines.
Pennsylvania is building data centers in abandoned mines
Housing data centers in mines provides an alternative to destroying local forests and may spare residents from data centers’ noise and air pollution.
If Corpus Christi can’t revive desalination plant project, it may owe Texas $235 million
Earlier this month, city officials declined to pursue developing the plant for the second time in a year.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello