This is part 6 of a Sightline series on parking requirements. Read parts 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 5.
In 2007, I saw this in a residential neighborhood near central Copenhagen:
A rack for 10 bicycles had grown where an on-street car parking space had been. In Copenhagen, where 50 percent of residents commute by bike, on-street bicycle parking was a sensible idea — fit 10 bikes where one car could go, thus freeing up the sidewalk from a cluster of parked cycles.
Fast-forward several years, and Copenhagen parking has grown up to bigger and pinker things:
This car-shaped storage unit provides secure, rainproof space for four cargo bicycles in a space equivalent to 1.5 vehicle parking spots.
On-street parking takes up a lot of space in North American cities: 5 to 8 percent of all urban land, according to UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup. If parking reforms — like pricing on-street spaces — reduce the need for curb parking in our cities, what will we do with all that ... Read more