Friday, September 12, 2008

Atrios on Urban NIMBYism

Atrios can be seen here commenting on urban NIMBYism and its single-minded focus on parking. Which he argues is odd as more parking has the effect of bringing in more cars and consequently reducing the appeal of the neighborhood. For myself, I agree with Atrios and not just because we share a first name. I think people focus on parking way too much. Parking is part of our car culture and this is a large part of what we need to change. For instance, I like Portland and its lack of downtown parking but providing ample bike lanes (including a double-wide one), light rail, trolley and dedicated pedestrian/cyclist pathways.

I deeply hope we can start moving to a more transit focused development style in this country. We need to do this to free ourselves from the shackles of oil.

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