Comments on: ReThinking a Lot: the weird, massive, hidden-in-plain sight world of parking

By: David Smith

David Smith — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:35:00 +0000

“In some places, to be sure, ..”

From this point on, I read the excerpt in my head in a little leprechaun voice.

By: Amelia_G

Amelia_G — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:15:00 +0000

There’s a beautiful parking garage in Miami at 1111 Lincoln Road. People rent out space for parties there. The view at the top is grand.
http://www.1111lincolnroad.com/

By: Amelia_G

Amelia_G — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:09:00 +0000

It seems like there are more stores in Seattle that don’t have walkways in their parking lots. More walkways, please. All the way to the edge–some people don’t arrive in cars.

By: 3William56

3William56 — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:53:00 +0000

Brisbane domestic airport has a stunning carpark. Although just a concrete cuboid in shape, the side facing the terminal is covered in small metal plates hung from hooks. As gusts of wind blow past, they sway, altering their apparent colour to form ripples and eddies like a vertical pool of water – from a distance the illusion is striking. Google tells me it’s by a fellow called Ned Kahn (insert William Shatner scream here).

http://inhabitgroup.com/projects/selected-projects/brisbane-airport-domestic-terminal-carpark-brisbane-australia/

(Really needs a video to do the effect justice. I’d love to cover my house in these things).

By: John Voegtlin

John Voegtlin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:14:00 +0000

I might read this simply because the spindle is on the cover. So glad I got to see it in person a few times before Das Walgreens started destroying inconvenient art. http://www.flickr.com/photos/efdisaster/2203203474/

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:59:00 +0000

So does the book offer suggestions and solutions? I’d love to read some good concepts. I hate, hate, hate any form of parking (besides parking in your own private suburban driveway or garage), even in the suburbs but especially in cities.

I understand the difficulty of the problem, but I often wonder if parking is deliberately designed to be unpleasant in some places. It kind of makes sense to do that, to encourage people to take public transit or walk – but in places where public transit is nonexistent and walking is overly difficult there are some sadists out there designing the parking.

By: jwkrk

jwkrk — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:44:00 +0000

They paved Paradise…

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:36:00 +0000

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that 50,000 Americans would walk half a mile. No, really. I totally do.

Let’s see, 5280 divided by 50k… that’s a little over an inch. Yep, they’ll go for that.

By: k

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:29:00 +0000

Need a solar tycoon to lease the air space and put up solar panels, if what I read a few years ago about 100 sq mi of solar would power the country seems like you could get that just from the Atlanta to LA sunbelt without having much distribution + covered parking

By: Karl

Karl — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:27:00 +0000

Last month I was in Paris for a meeting, and stayed near Stade de France, the big football/rugby stadium. Probably 50-60k seats. Zero parking. How? The RER train stopped a half mile away, and people are willing to take the train and then walk.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:44:00 +0000

Right they just need better PR.

Maybe a photographer, or two to just hangout with fresher eyes for us.

Like Johnna Arnold here: http://www.traywick.com/

By: Bilsko

Bilsko — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:32:00 +0000

@twitter-19901094:disqus
One more book to add to that list is Donald Shoup’s “The High Cost of Free Parking”
http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/193236496X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I157IDS15BYWFE&colid=35X3L74UG8L0R

There was a piece in the LA Magazine not too long ago that had some great anecdotes about the history of parking lots and garages in LA:
http://www.lamag.com/features/story.aspx?ID=1568281

By: ocschwar

ocschwar — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:03:00 +0000

Only America is large enough to have room for something as stupid as these parking lots.

By: ocschwar

ocschwar — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:01:00 +0000

MIT readers automatically translate that to “less expensive by a factor of four.” We all speak the same language at MIT, very, very, badly.

By: Mr Memory

Mr Memory — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:21:00 +0000

Those interested in reading more hefty tomes about parking will like:
The Architecture of Parking, Simon Henley, Thames and Hudson – all about parking garages – http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Parking-Simon-Henley/dp/0500287961/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Carchitecture, Jonathan Bell, August Birkhauser – more generally on parking - http://www.amazon.com/Carchitecture-When-Car-City-Collide/dp/3764364548/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

By: JustinKalb

JustinKalb — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:09:00 +0000

I heard it was because all their new stores were somehow “required” to be on an out-lot. It’s kinda hard to believe they couldn’t put a drive thru in on the end of the building since there’s plenty of room… Way to go! Wallgreens, you ruined a wonderfully classic piece of art for a relatively new pile of shit. Oh, and thanks for the semi redeeming wind turbines that replaced the equally more cool kinetic sculptures.

By: Vnend

Vnend — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:02:00 +0000

Those big stadium parking lots may only be used by the fans of the team using the stadium ten times a year, but that doesn’t mean that is all they get used. I have seen them used for commuter parking, which means that portions are in use almost every day except when there is a ball game/concert. They are also used during the week for driver’s and riders education programs; nothing like lots of clear ground for a new driver to make learning mistakes in. And they are used by amateur sports enthusiasts when they can get them. Locally the SCCA has locked up the contract with the stadium authority, which is good for them but has hurt the other car clubs in the area by locking them out (to the detriment of the sport (autocross) locally.

But there are a lot of uses that an occasional big slab of pavement can be, and are, put to besides parking cars on it.

By: taintofevil

taintofevil — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:55:00 +0000

There are a few stores in Seattle that have about half of the parking in a garage below the store. Huge parking lots are usually required by zoning laws.

By: ecologist

ecologist — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:49:00 +0000

“… four times less expensive” ?

and in an MIT press release too. sad, just sad.

By: Jonathan Badger

Jonathan Badger — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:26:00 +0000

The joke was that Ford Prefect named himself that because he mistakenly believed cars were the dominant life form on Earth.

By: greebo

greebo — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:19:00 +0000

There are some very well designed parking lots at some of the newer supermarkets in the UK. Two design features in particular that I regard as crucial, that I’ve never seen anywhere in N. America:
a) walkways between the rows of cars, so that people walking from the store to their cars never have to walk in the lanes where the cars drive. This dramatically improves safety, especially if you have young kids.
b) trees. Lots of trees. For example, the walkways in (a) are lined with trees that shade the cars from the heat, soak up some of the pollution, and help to offset some of the carbon emissions.

Of course, if the walkways look elegant, using interlocking brick, raised planters with shrubs, etc, that also helps. The Brits do that type of thing so much better than the Americans.

By: Moriarty

Moriarty — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:18:00 +0000

What did Douglas Adams say about garages?

By: rachel

rachel — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:44:00 +0000

You have clearly never been to Milton Keynes*. Someone really needs to buy this book for the town council…
*also known as ‘We really wish we were living in America in the 60s’ or ‘Satan’s layby’ to Bill Bailey fans

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Too bad about the soil.

By: Eark_the_Bunny

Eark_the_Bunny — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:33:00 +0000

I have always wanted to tear up a parking lot and put an old house.

By: lightsgeek25

lightsgeek25 — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:27:00 +0000

Berwyn, IL spindle art represent!

To bad they tore it down last year to put a walgreens in place, because the old walgreens at the end of the strip mall (just to the right this cover photo) couldn’t put a drive thru pharmacy at its old location.

By: BookGuy

BookGuy — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:03:00 +0000

”Steaming Mess of Rage and Horns” is now the name of my death metal jazz fusion band.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:35:00 +0000

“Many huge suburban parking lots are built to accommodate a maximum capacity of cars that is only rarely needed. ”

Definitely only applies to the USA.
In the UK, car parks tend to fill up most weekends and parking spills out onto nearby streets, which upsets residents and, after a few months of a new shop opening, the “Resident only” signs go up.
In Germany, car parks tend to be a similar size to the UK car parks, but everyone gets bus/train/walk/bike and the car parks are generally only half full except at Christmas when it turns into one almighty clusterfuck as people that never normally need to find spaces have to hunt them down. I drove round the periphery of a couple that had literally gridlocked themselves into a steaming mess of rage and horns.

By: Kelly Bennett

Kelly Bennett — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:19:00 +0000

An urban planner’s take on parking lots:
http://citiography.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/parking-lots-are-bad-neighbors/

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:09:00 +0000

Lately what I find even more striking than outdoor parking (which has long fascinated me with its massive commercial real estate and roadway allocation) is garages. Specifically, residential garages. One of the streets on the route I run near my home is currently being filled up with cheap duplexes. When a house is still just a stick frame without full walls yet, the size of the garage relative to the other rooms is more apparent. And these places… there’s more garage than living room. It’s just creepy as all hell to see.

Douglas Adams was more correct than he could ever have known.