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it sure can't be accurate to state that lots of houses in Capitol Hill have garages (other than Barrett Linde houses built in the 1970s and 1980s). True many houses do have alley access and spaces in back. But many blocks do not have functional alleys, and many houses are landlocked without alley access.

A problem with the zoning proposals is that they work disconnected from other policies which haven't changed despite the need.

E.g., additional cars per household and larger cars should pay a lot more for permits, plus permits should cost a lot more than they do. And even people who don't need street parking (such as myself) to accommodate a car (I don't own one) should have to pay a permit fee too probably.

By underpricing street access (the opposite of "performance parking") driving is induced. It's induced also by free parking at work, especially by Congress. And bad decisions are encouraged (or at least decisions that disconnect residential location from job access).

The reality is that as the number of units in a building increases, the number of automobiles in the building decreases.

People with families live in the city without owning cars, and not just poor people.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8183-2005Mar28.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/85652854/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/2511072241/

But I will admit it would be harder with more children. And it would be easier if we had successful, neighborhood-based schools. And it would be easier if more of our neighborhoods were dense. Otherwise, you can't economically support the provision of local services within neighborhoods, such as daycare.

But rather than making car ownership easier, what we need to do is invest resources on making walkability, bicycling, and transit more successful.

That's the solution, not privileging car ownership and pushing those costs on the rest of the people in the city.

by Richard Layman on Jul 31, 2008 11:59 am • link • report