America Has a Lot of Parking Spaces. It’s a Problem.
In crowded coastal cities, they’re getting way too valuable to keep giving away to commuters for free.
Unlikely.
Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Just over 76 percent of U.S. workers usually drove alone to their place of employment in 2016, according to the Census Bureau2— a percentage that has changed little over the past decade. Those 115 million drivers all needed somewhere to put their cars, sport utility vehicles and pickups while they were on the job. They also needed somewhere to put those cars when they got home, and probably when they went to the grocery store or out to dinner.
They were able to do this because American cities and towns tend to have lots more parking spaces than cars. Thanks to a new inventory of parking spaces that data scientist Eric Scharnhorst of the parking analytics and consulting startup Parkingmill conducted on behalf of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America, we now know how many more, at least in the five cities that Scharnhorst has studied so far. The chart below shows parking spaces per household in each city; there are about 1.9 cars and light trucks per household nationwide.