How Too Much Parking Strangled the Motor City

In Detroit and other Rust Belt cities, an affinity for the automobile means a huge amount of downtowns devoted to cars.

"This is definitely a self-perpetuating cycle in which you sort of drain the vibrancy out of an area by adding more parking," Linn says, "which then makes the area seem unsafe, which makes you feel a little more uncomfortable in the space, which makes you add more parking."

39% of the land in downtown Detroit is covered by surface parking or garages, and 84% of commuters drive to work alone in their cars. Downtown Tacoma has its own fair share of empty space and surface parking lots. Every conversation about development always come back to parking ...