Anyone who has ever tried to find parking in a big city knows that it can take forever. Residents of the "city of cars", Los Angeles, lose more than 80 hours a year just looking for a free space. The relatively narrow streets of European cities are no better.
A single parking space is not particularly large, but there are many vehicles, and this then shapes entire urban landscapes. Most American cities allocate at least a quarter of their available building land to parking spaces, and some even more.
This use of space not only determines the appearance of the city. It also means that large areas are covered with asphalt, which radiates heat in the summer and makes city life unbearable. In addition, the risk of flooding increases, as asphalt prevents rainwater from penetrating the soil.
This is why many cities are asking themselves how important parking spaces are to them and what that means for people's mobility.
Vienna is introducing drastic changes
The Austrian capital, already known for its traffic jams and frustrations when looking for parking, has decided to take a completely different path. Instead of building new parking spaces, Vienna is increasingly removing them.
The goal is to break up concrete surfaces not only to keep the city cooler in the summer, but also to encourage residents to use other forms of transportation.
The city is implementing more than 350 projects to turn asphalt into green and public spaces. Many parking spaces are being removed, including in the central square, Neuer Markt. This historic location, located next to some of the most famous tourist attractions, was once filled with parked cars. Today, the square is a pedestrian-only zone, with trees and benches for Viennese residents and visitors.
Let the tenants decide
One of the city's main thoroughfares has been transformed into a bicycle street modeled after those in the Netherlands, removing 140 parking spaces to create 1,3 kilometers of bike paths and green spaces.
Such comprehensive interventions have paved the way for so-called “neighborhood oases,” projects in which groups of residents can ask a city district to convert a specific parking space into space for communal gardens, outdoor dining areas, or children's playgrounds.
Another important change has occurred: there is no longer free parking in Vienna. In 2022, a single city parking fee system was introduced, meaning that every parking spot is charged. Newcomers to the city can leave their cars for a maximum of two hours.
The most important thing is good public transportation.
All these changes have of course made it even more difficult to find parking in the center of Vienna, but the city has also provided an alternative. It has established several "Park and Ride" parking lots - with affordable all-day parking in the immediate vicinity of public transport stops. And public transport in Vienna is fast, reliable and affordable.
The city is consciously making sure that residents can still move around. "We have to get people to accept these changes," Ina Homejer from the Urban Planning Office tells DW. "We have to ask them: What do you want your neighborhood to look like? Do you want it to be full of cars and without trees, or do you want something else?"
The expansion of parking fee zones brings in 180 million euros per year, and that money is invested directly in cycling infrastructure and encouraging alternative modes of transport. Vienna's "green" urban planning approach has led to residents using cars 37 percent less than in the 1990s.
An attack on freedom of movement?
Although surveys show that more than two-thirds of Viennese support the abolition of parking spaces and the expansion of green areas, Homejer believes that support for these efforts must be even greater: "The policy of reclaiming the space that we have given over to cars for years is very complicated. Many who come to the city by car — and often have no other choice — see it as an attack on their way of life and their ability to move around," says Henri Grabar, author of "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World."
This is especially true in the United States, where there is almost no “downtown” in the European sense and where the car is the main mode of transportation. There, 92 percent of households own at least one car, and drivers are an important political and social group that strongly influences local politics and urban planning decisions. This makes it almost impossible to implement changes similar to those in Vienna in the United States.
They are also trying in the USA
Still, many American cities are trying to do something. Dallas, Texas, recently turned a large parking lot into a nearly 1.5-acre park in its downtown area. New York and San Francisco have begun to permanently retain some of the temporary solutions from the pandemic, when parking lots were converted into outdoor patios for restaurants.
There is also an attractive opportunity for cities to fill their budgets with parking fees – and at the same time reduce the number of cars in the city. "Many cities are realizing that parking can be an option, especially when they have modest budgets," Dana Janoča of the Washington Institute for Transportation and Development Policy told DW. "Streets are actually one of the most valuable assets that cities have."
Likewise, large cities like San Jose and Austin have begun to lift the requirement that every new building must have a minimum number of parking spaces, which frees up space for housing or other amenities and helps change car usage habits.
Homer from Vienna concludes that changing mindsets is only possible if people are given a choice. "Nothing can be reduced if there is no good alternative. This is true in general, but especially true for cars, because many people feel they have a right to them. They must be offered a cheaper and better alternative."
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