Quote:
Originally Posted by aaron38
TOD only means having dense development around mass transit access, so that people have options other than driving and don't have to drive. It doesn't mean they can't own a car.
It looks to me to be a self limiting problem. Who is going to get in their car for most trips and then go sit in a traffic jam when they can walk / take mass transit and get there faster? With all the retail right there, how much do they really need to drive?
But if the cars are used only rarely, to get to locations not served by mass transit, is it really a big deal?
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It's a bit different for homeowners in a condo vs renters in a big rental building. If you own a condo with a parking space you may or may not have a car to fill that space If you have a car, you may not use it much. Mentally, you've paid for your condo and it came with a space or two and you probably don't think about the cost of that spot very much.
For rental buildings, they're going to make sure they rent out every parking space to maximize income. If there are 100 space, they'll rent out 100. If there are 500, they will rent out all 500 space. And as renters (near transit hubs), if there are 100 spaces, there will be 100 cars and the other 400 units will be filled with people who don't want to have cars. (the ones who do want to have cars will find another building to rent in or neighborhood) If you build 500 parking space, you'll have 500 cars with 500 people who want to have cars and far fewer people who don't have cars.
Even worse is that as a renter, you're thinking, I'm paying $200 or $250 a month for parking, I'm going to make the most of using my car. Back in the day, my old roommate was going to U. Chicago for b-school (we lived in the South Loop before all the new construction). He originally was going to take the metra electric down. The building offered his first 3 months of parking free, so he was like cool, I'll do that and bring a car. Then once the $150 / month parking kicked in was like, I should use my car more and drove to Hyde Park etc. as often as not. Renters without cars also great for a neighborhood because they're somewhat captive audiences and will frequent shops within walking distance (or along the L line they are on.)
Often times the developers would be willing to build far less parking than is demanded / requested. (the new developments in the South Loop originally had less parking and increased it a bit from neighborhood pressure. [hoping we can pressure them back down... many of the loud complainers don't understand how more parking = more cars = more traffic. They think housing without parking is crazy, where will all the orphan cars be parked? Many don't realize that there are people who can afford to, but choose to not own a car.)