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Much of what we, as highly mobile Americans, take for granted about our current lifestyles is built on the assumption that we should be able to park close to, if not at, the place where we’re going. It’s an unconscious thing.  I do it all the time, getting a little frustrated when I have to search more than a minute or two for close-by parking. And my family and friends are always complaining about lack of parking.

But here’s the reality: Parking is a by-product of our auto-dominated society.

For a whole host of reasons, Portland and most other cities are moving toward a more urban way of living, and away from organizing our lives around the automobile. The drivers for this include the higher societal cost of suburban sprawl when all costs are considered; the imperative to move to more efficient, less costly housing forms (think multifamily) for larger numbers of people; the attractive lifestyle choices inherent in urban living to an increasing number of young people and retirees; and the need to become far more energy efficient as we move into an era of increasing risks associated with climate change.

In the 1970s, Portland made a choice to limit the number of parking spaces downtown in order to revive the central city by encouraging people to use transit. It worked.

Now we need to do the same in those areas along high capacity transit lines that will become far more densely populated in the future. In these areas we are already seeing tensions arise over parking. But limiting parking in these areas is necessary to encourage more and more people to make the transition to a lifestyle that is far more dependent on walking, biking and transit.