A Right to Free Parking?
Many sidewalks have cars parked alongside them. There are at least a billion parking spots in the United States alone—three times as many as there are people. With your team, investigate the history of parking, then discuss with your team: should people have a right to free parking at their homes and places of work?
A driver loops the same block for the fifth time hunting a free curb space — while right behind her a private lot sits half-empty behind a 'customers only' sign. America has built over a billion parking spaces, about three for every person, yet a spot can still feel like a hunt. The puzzle of parking is really a puzzle about who pays for 'free.'
Key concepts
- Free Parking Isn't Free
- Someone always pays — the cost is folded into your rent, the prices at the store, and your taxes; 'free' parking just hides who's paying, including people who don't even own a car.
- Car Dependency
- When cars are stationary 95% of the time yet demand enormous space, abundant cheap parking quietly makes driving the default and locks a society into needing cars.
- The Opportunity Cost Of Land
- Every parking space is land not used for housing, parks, or shops — in many city centers half or more of all land goes to storing empty cars.
- Minimum Parking Requirements
- Laws forcing developers to build a set number of spaces per home or store — they mandate sprawl, raise housing costs, and devote huge land to cars whether needed or not.
What to know
-
01
Parking quietly devours cities — cars sit idle about 95% of the time yet in many North American downtowns half or more of all land is given to storing them, so the history of parking is the story of how much shared space we handed to stationary cars.
Keep reading the full lesson
The rest of this lesson — every key insight, the cross-subject connection, the Are We There Yet? theme tie-in, and practice questions — comes with full access.
Unlock full access →$9.99/month, or $29.99 for the whole season — see plans.
New here? Create a free account to read the free section first.