The Role of Parking in American Driving Culture

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Parking is the greatest determinant of whether or not Americans will drive
America is an outlier in the degree to which people drive compared to other countries like Australia and Canada
Parking is a great subsidy for driving and car ownership
Building parking is really expensive and requires levying a large tax on the cost of apartments
New parking can add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of low-income housing units in California and Arizona

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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