David Gardetta’s article for Los Angeles Magazine, “Between the Lines,” from last month, highlights the role of parking in the transportation choices we make everyday. While the entire piece is fascinating, with its focus on the history and particularities of parking in Los Angeles, the findings about the parking culture give anyone a reason to think about the choices we continue to make about our built environment.
Consider the following (which I have paraphrased from the article):
The solutions seem simple and self-evident to anyone who has lived for a time without a car, or cheap, abundant parking. Fewer spaces. Contrary to what many believe, the seas of asphalt we see surrounding our grocery stores and shopping malls are not responses to market forces (parking is expensive!), but rather a mandated amenity in adherence to engineering guidelines that assume that every user of a property will (or would like to) arrive by their own private automobile.
One of the best observations was that “L.A. wasn’t built around the car. It was built around the parking lot.” As someone who has lived in Southern California and the Midwest, I can share the personal observation that the land use perfected in Los Angeles, that prefers the parking space to all other uses, has been successfully exported to cities throughout the country that have seen significant greenfield development in the second half of the 20th Century – the age of the automobile.
Because cheap, plentiful parking is the solution we’ve used in the past, doesn’t mean it is the only way forward for the future. If we, as a society, had not continually changed course throughout our history, we would have failed long ago for our lack of foresight and flexibility. As we look to the future, we have an opportunity to think anew – what is the city and the community I want to live in rather than drive through – and build that.