How Parking Lots Contribute to Urban Sprawl

Downtowns everywhere are languishing, and one of the biggest challenges to the revitalization of those historic districts is the absence of dedicated parking for the businesses and residential units. Heaven forbid we civilized folk should have to walk a whole block for a latte, when Starbucks has enough parking for even the morning commute rush!

Americans have a deep-seated love affair with their vehicles, and retailers have been trained to bow down before that. They plan their buildings so that there will be enough parking for the busiest day of the year - you don't want to discourage shoppers, after all - and learn to work around the empty acreage the other 364 days.

Nearly all retail businesses voluntarily exceed the generous number of parking spaces that planning and zoning departments require based on the intended construction. You are pretty well guaranteed to find sprawling masses of empty parking spaces everywhere you need to go.

That's lovely, if all you're concerned about it dashing in to the mall to pick up some shoes on clearance. Sure, that vast, empty stretch is ugly, but it's darned convenient - if you can ignore that you're probably walking that same block to the door if the store is relatively busy.

Stop for a moment and consider what these enormous fields of concrete really mean for your community.

- Large, flat concrete surfaces increase run-off. Rainwater cannot soak into the ground so more storm drains are needed. This increases the necessary sewer capacity and the water treatment requirements. It also worsens over-land and flash flooding.

- In order to get people's vehicles to and from that parking lot, local governments needs to increase the capacity of its roads, worsening the run-off problem and its sequelae. This also increases the cost of public infrastructure and thus raises needed tax revenue.

- Allowing people to continue their one-spot-per-person mentality means discouraging the use of public transportation. Every car or SUV parked in that lot represents more fossil fuels burned and more air pollution created.