The Importance of Parking

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Most American downtowns are between a quarter and half parking by surface area. Building parking is really expensive, so when we require parking with every new unit, we are essentially levying a pretty large tax on the cost of that apartment. If you're going to require that every home have two parking spaces, you are essentially making the down payment on the storage of that car for the person buying it.

In our quest to accommodate parked cars, we’ve paved over downtowns, polluted the planet, and made it near impossible to get anywhere without driving. Slate’s Henry Grabar explains Big Parking — and how electric cars might offer an opportunity to finally try something new.

This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Michael Raphael, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.

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