Parking Minimums Promote Driving, Even in Transit-Friendly New York

For 30 years now Manhattan has imposed parking maximums on its core — a rule that limits the number of spots residential developers can create. The idea behind parking maximums is that by removing an incentive to own an automobile, cities will promote the use of more sustainable forms of transportation. For all its soundness of theory, though, the effects of residential parking on travel behavior hasn't received its due attention from the empirical research world.

Planning professor Rachel Weinberger of the University of Pennsylvania addresses this gap in the literature in an upcoming issue of Transport Policy. To demonstrate how parking maximums might deter driving, Weinberger studies how parking minimums influence commuting behavior in three outer New York City boroughs: Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. These areas served as a logical testing ground because residents have good transit access to Manhattan while off-street parking remains quite scarce.