Parking Laws Are Strangling America

And wait there’s actually something we can do about this maybe? Our friends at Climate Changemakers have put together a playbook on how to take action: https://www.climatechangemakers.org/p...

Check out the Not Just Bikes right here:    / notjustbikes   & his fantastic parking video: Why Amsterdam is Removing 10,000 Parking S...  

Special thanks to Donald Shoup (https://www.shoupdogg.com/) for his decades of work on exposing parking issues in the US, and for his willingness to help us with this episode. The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup (Dropbox link for the free 2004 manuscript PDF from his website): https://www.dropbox.com/s/npqk6adti2e...

Paved Paradise by Harry Grabar: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

Strong Towns has done a ton of great work pushing back against parking minimums, and our car-centric North American city design in general. Check them out here: https://www.strongtowns.org/

Strong Towns also made this great video called: Are Parking Lots Ruining Your City?    • Are Parking Lots Ruining Your City?  

The Parking Reform Network is another excellent resource, and they made this killer map tracking the progress of parking minimum rollbacks across the US: https://parkingreform.org/resources/m...

Sources & Citations

[00:45] ASU: Transit-oriented development helps cities ease off the gas (2014)

[01:52] The Verge: Why 'SimCity' has no parking lots, and other insights from the lead designer (2013)

[05:42] US District Court: United States v. Nationals City Lines, 118 F. Supp. 465 (N.D. III. 1953)

[05:55] The New York Times: Police Lift Ban on Night Parking (1947)

[08:20] Donald C. Shoup: The High Cost of Free Parking (2004 Manuscript)

[09:08] UCLA/Donald C. Shoup: The trouble with minimum parking requirements (1999)

[09:29] Journal of American Planning Association/Donald C. Shoup: An Opportunity to Reduce Minimum Parking Requirements (1995)

[09:45] Henry Grabar: Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World (link to purchase, 2023)

[11:56] ITE: Parking Generation Manual, 5th Edition (link to purchase, 2023)

[16:03] City of Phoenix: Chapter 7: Development of Standard of General Applicability (2011)

[19:15] Journal of Planning Education and Research/Donald C. Shoup: The High Cost of Free Parking (1997)

[19:17] The Washington Post: Why free street parking could be costing you hundreds more in rent (2023)

[19:29] Access/Michael Manville & Donald Shoup: People, Parking, and Cities (2004)

[20:07] Sightline Institute: Who Pays for Parking? (2013)

[22:10] D Magazine: The City of Dallas is Putting Parking Spots in Its Crosshairs (2021)

[23:02] PNAS: The role of concrete in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of US buildings and pavements (2021)

[23:19] EPA: Reduce Urban Heat Island Effect

[24:28] Strong Towns: Fayetteville Eliminates Minimum Parking Requirements (2015)

[25:12] Bloomberg: Buffalo Becomes First City to Bid Minimum Parking Goodbye (2017)

[25:20] Streetsblog USA: Hartford Eliminates Parking Minimums Citywide (2017)

[25:27] Parking Reform Network: Progress on Parking Mandates Map

[25:46] Pittsburgh City Paper: Pittsburgh mayor introduces bill to ease parking requirements for row houses (2020)

[26:04] Strong Towns: One Line of Your Zoning Code Can Make a World of Difference (2019)

[26:19] Global News: Edmonton removes minimum parking requirements city-wide (2020)

Episode Credits

Host, Head Writer, Editor: Rollie Williams

Executive Producers: Rollie Williams & Ben Boult & Matt Nelsen & Nicole Conlan

Writers: Nicole Conlan & Matt Nelsen & Ben Boult

Director: Matt Nelsen

Cinematographer: Ben Boult

Assistant Editor: Xola Thompson

Production Assistants: Milton Vargas, Christine Grobelny

Animator: Ian MK Cessna (https://ianhasawebsite.com/)

Theme music by Gratis (   / @gratis3241  )

Copyright Climate Town 2025. All rights reserved.

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