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December 4, 2006
Carsharing as a Catalyst for Bigger Ideas
Last week over at the Daily Score, Alan Durning had an interesting essay on being able to rent some of the cars he sees parked on his street.
But this whimsy leads to a serious discussion of how much of our society's capital we tie up in both our vehicle fleet and the real estate we park that fleet on.
I just read some background material for the RTP update that indicates we have five parking spaces (at a cost of perhaps $600-$1200 per year each) for each car.
Surely we can deploy our resources with a higher rate of return for all of us?
Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM
Comments
December 4, 2006 2:59 PM
Garlynn Says:
I've always thought that this region, this state, this country all have way too many parking spaces. They take up valuable real estate and they lock it up for the exclusive use of parking cars.
Why not institute a parking space tax? Say, $1 per space per day for open-air parking lots? Less for structured parking. To encourage folks to redevelop parking lots into... mixed-use developments, parks, open space, or just about anything else aside from holding places for cars not in use?
December 4, 2006 5:22 PM
nuovorecord Says:
"Why not institute a parking space tax? Say, $1 per space per day for open-air parking lots? Less for structured parking. To encourage folks to redevelop parking lots into... mixed-use developments, parks, open space, or just about anything else aside from holding places for cars not in use?"
A lot of businesses don't allow off-hours use of their parking lots, so they sit empty 12-14 hours a day. Such a tax as you suggest could also encourage shared usage of lots, i.e. bank parking by day, restaurant parking by night.
