No More Parking Minimums in Mexico City

Mexico City has taken a step that many urbanists have advocated for around the world: they've eliminated parking minimums. "The policy change applies to every land use and throughout the entire city of 8.8 million residents," Angie Schmitt reports for Streetsblog USA. In place of minimums, new developments will now have a cap on the amount of parking they're allowed to build.

"The old rules mandated parking even though only about 30 percent of Mexico City residents own cars and the city has a well-developed subway system," Schmitt reports. Backers say this change will encourage more development around transit and save money for those renters and home buyers who are not interested in parking. Their counterparts in the United States would have to subsidize the cost of parking whether they wanted it or not.