I really enjoy the ClimateTown youtube channel. I had never considered that parking laws could be behind why my city looks like such a dystopian concrete jungle.
They also provide some instructions for how to contact your local council reps to voice your concerns - https://www.climatechangemakers.org/playbook-parking-mandates/#action
I don’t think I’m as active in politics as I should be but we all have to start somewhere. I’m sharing here and hope some of you also try reaching out to your local reps. You can even complain about more than just parking laws!
It’s two-fold: lots of parking, and lack of good alternatives. If we just reduce parking requirements, but don’t provide safe, reliable alternatives (eg quality public transit and bike lanes), you get angry drivers and sad (or dead) cyclists.
absolutely - my hope is that businesses would rather push for public transit rather than buy more land and slather it with hot asphalt, if given the choice.
Of course they would! Public transit funded by the taxpayer is always going to be cheaper than privately funding parking. It would be a beautiful way to align interests to get business owners siding with urbanists to finally get more transit built.
There a lot of bad zoning laws in the usa, check your local laws to see how bad it is where you live
Houstons terrible, we have “no zoning” laws, but a mishmash of rules where we get the worst of both worlds.
Rollie is great, though it sorta seems like meat is his blind spot
Oh shit… I saw the thumbnail and got excited. I love this guy.
He went Tim Robinson mode.
Shout out to Henry Grabar’s Paved Paradise
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/books/review/paved-paradise-henry-grabar.html
