What Parking Is Costing U.S. Cities [Infographic]

What if the bustle of New York City streets—the bumper-to-bumper traffic, legions of yellow cabs and honking delivery trucks squeezing their way through the already dense traffic—would turn into outdoor seating, breezy urban parks and undisturbed bike and bus lanes? What sounds implausible is the actual contents of a new plan dubbed NYC 25×25, which is backed by none other than the city’s new major, Eric Adams, and proposes taking 25% of New York City street space away from cars by 2025.

According to NGO Transportation Alternatives, which devised the scheme, New York City has 6,300 miles of streets and three million free on-street parking spaces, whose number surpasses the number of cars in the city by a third. While cars will arguably stay a part of any city in the future, may it be in the form of buses, delivery vehicles or transport for the physically impaired, the idea that public land and resources should be freely available to those who chose to drive and park in populous cities is losing ground.

Calculating the value of a city’s parking spots, including free parking, in dollar amounts sets into perspective the resources dedicated to this service long taken for granted. A 2018 analysis from the Research Institute for Housing America shows that despite a high bill of $6,500 per household, the cost of parking spaces in New York City isn’t even as inflated as in other cities.

The analysis that looked at five American cities found that those in the West and Midwest—which arguably rely on cars more heavily—have much more value tied up in parking spots. In Jackson, Wyoming, a baffling 27 parking spots are provided per household, which is in part explained by the popularity of the city among tourists. Yet, a survey of Jackson’s predominantly free parking showed in 2017 that a large chunk of spots remain empty even in peak tourist season. All in all, parking tied up a value of more than $190,000 per household in the city. The story is similar in Seattle where parking was worth almost $120,000 per household, but was also increasingly underutilized in recent years, according to the report.

Size of 13 Central Parks

While New York City’s parking value per household was the lowest in the survey, it was the second-highest in overall terms at $20.6 billion, behind Seattle’s $35.8 billion. This means that New York City has parking that is very valuable overall but is already not utilized by all of its many residents, putting the city a better position for repurposing some of this space over more car-based locations like Jackson, Wyoming or Des Moines, Iowa. New York City also had the highest share of on-street parking in the survey at more than 65% of all its parking, making a repurposing impactful to pedestrians and bikers. The 25% share of car spaces proposed to be converted for non-car use are equal to the size of 13 Central Parks, according to The Guardian.

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Charted by Statista