I had the privilege of attending a talk in Stamford a few nights ago by Henry Grabar, author of “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World”, a book which The New Yorker has deemed one of the best books of 2023. Grabar’s work perfectly mirrors the conversations we are currently having in West Hartford. He spoke powerfully about how American parking policy has badly damaged our vital public spaces. He described a future in which we might use a little less space for storing cars, in exchange for a lot more room for human beings, an idea that is more urgent with each passing year as the American housing crisis deepens.
Grabar, a resident of Boston, talked about how even with one of the worst housing crises in the nation, his city is still building more parking than homes. Parking requirements have long been debunked as totally arbitrary, yet parking minimums built into zoning laws often stymie the creation of housing – even affordable housing in transit-rich, walkable places where residents would likely own fewer cars than average. When excess parking is built at the expense of homes, it results not in a disappearance of future residents off the face of the earth, but the displacement of those people as well as the continued unsustainable rise in home prices. Excess parking also creates huge environmental issues with large swaths of underused impermeable surface, creating toxic runoff and urban heat islands.
Grabar then went on to show devastating photographs of cities around the country which have bulldozed their vibrant historic downtowns to make parking spaces for those who drive into the city, do not linger, and drive home as soon as the work day is over. He singled out Hartford as an example of a city that has used parking to hollow out its central core. Building excess parking also directly counteracts our society’s efforts to decarbonize and fight climate change. Grabar presented several studies showing that car ownership and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) rise perfectly in lockstep with increased availability of parking. To further illustrate how we’ve prioritized parking over humans at a ruinous cost, both in money and to the character and liveliness of our cities, Grabar showed how Stamford recently built a new parking garage with 928 spots at a cost of $81.7 million – nearly $90,000 per space. Even when parking is “free”, that cost is borne by someone, often rolled into housing and product prices.
Have we learned our lesson here? Are we willing to undo the mistakes of the past? Parking remains a major point of controversy in Hartford. Recently the CEO of the Bushnell has been lamenting the “loss” of the bomb-crater of a parking lot adjacent to his building. Hartford is a city awash in excess parking, a city whose residents have the 6th-lowest car ownership in the country, and is the 36th worst city in the country for asthma outcomes. In West Hartford Center, controversy over a miniscule reduction of our over-supplied parking has stalled a plan to redesign our Center to be safer, healthier, and almost certainly even more prosperous. We clearly have a housing shortage in town, not a parking shortage, yet nearly every housing proposal is fought over concerns about parking and traffic.
West Hartford is a microcosm of this national debate. We, too, are working hard to figure out the role of parking in the future of our town, which ultimately impacts everything from road safety to housing prices to the physical and mental health of our citizens. Grabar’s data is clear. The more parking we build, the more we drive. The more we drive, the less safe our roads are. The more we drive, the more socially isolated we are. The more we drive, the less physically active we are. The more we drive, the poorer we are. Parking policy is a lot less mundane than it seems. It actually affects how we humans can thrive in our environment.
Grabar also showed fascinating data from Stamford which closely replicates West Hartford’s experience. It turns out that Stamford’s many downtown garages are also only about 50-60% full at all times. Yet, during the question-and-answer segment at the end of the event, one attendee stood up and spoke passionately about how it was an “absolute nightmare” to park for the event. Does this dynamic sound familiar?
Here are Bike West Hartford, we’re not just about bikes. We are really about building a more sustainable, equitable, safer, healthier, less expensive, and more connected future. We think bikes can be a big part of that future. West Hartford is a small, relatively flat town with well-preserved, historic, mixed-use neighborhoods and a whole lot of underused asphalt. Imagine if we could shift our transportation mode-share a few more percent towards bikes. We would see more of our neighbors face-to-face and not through the windshield of our cars. Our kids could more safely build their confidence and independence. We would need less space to store and operate cars, which can help us create lower cost, more sustainable housing. We would have less traffic and need to spend less money on road infrastructure. We would be doing our part to fight climate change while simultaneously being more climate-resilient. We could welcome more neighbors into town without fretting quite so much about traffic and parking. Let’s imagine a smarter future for ourselves and our children.