Asphalt Deserts

One of the things that struck us on our first walk of our New Rochelle Walking Challenge was the amount of private parking.  A few examples are shown below.  These asphalt deserts raise a few questions.  How much of the space taken up by private off-street parking has been mandated through the current city zoning codes?  What is the run off effect on the city's storm water system of all this paved space? How much of this parking is actually used?  We were walking around on a Sunday and acres of parking sat empty.  What is the value of the land sitting here underutilized?  How much are the owners of these parking lots paying in taxes?  

And what is the effect of all this parking on walkability?  It doesn't make for the most interesting vistas.  And much has been said about the safety of areas like these, especially at night with few people around, poor lighting, and no where close to run to in an emergency. 

Parking is a weirdly emotive topic and one that I will certainly return to while completing our Challenge, including attempting to answer some of the questions I have posed above.  In the meantime, for anyone interested and who hasn't already read it, check out Donald Shoup's High Cost of Free Parking

Donald Shoup talks of parking spaces as 'land banks'  just begging to be put to better use.  And if people and cities are determined to keep areas like those in the images above dedicated to parking, he suggests getting creative about multiple leases of space - commuters Monday to Friday during the day, restaurant patrons in the evening, churches and sports clubs on the weekends - ANYTHING to stop so much space sitting vacant so much of the time.  

What we found during our walk looked to be the opposite of this approach, and seems remarkably unproductive and a sad waste of both space and economic opportunity.

And my personal favorite from our Sunday stroll.