You may remember that phrase as the title of a book written by transportation guru Donald Shoup about twenty years ago. Of course, it’s wrong to pretend street parking is actually “free”. The considerable expense is borne by all taxpayers in order to allow users to enjoy this convenience at no charge, ensuring its popularity among the relatively few beneficiaries.
In addition to the financial burden, there are other very serious drawbacks that are usually overlooked. This “free” car storage subsidizes excessive vehicle ownership and encourages inefficient use, especially by facilitating far more single-occupant trips. Also disturbing is the substantial opportunity cost of public property being diverted to essentially private use, making it unavailable to serve more important community needs. These negative impacts disproportionately affect cyclists (and potential cyclists), because the public property that is overwhelmingly being diverted for car parking is the very street space we need to safely share the road with motor vehicle traffic.
Way back in 2008 the City Council adopted policy recommendations from a Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Commission-sponsored study issue to allocate street space according to rational principles that give top priority to using these publicly owned transportation facilities for their intended purpose of transportation, and to protect the safety of vulnerable road users. Among these policies are three that directly address the issue of street parking. Taken together, these three policies make a clear and forceful statement that transportation safety takes precedence over parking [1].
Despite these clear policies, in practice it is always a major challenge to overcome fierce opposition by those who believe parking is a more appropriate use of that street space. What typically follows is an attempt to preserve street parking by cutting back on safety margins for cyclists, or by simply declaring that a bike facility is not feasible.
The result is that cyclists are forced to ride in conditions that are unnecessarily dangerous and stressful, or else be relegated to a subset of public streets that are far less efficient for travel and don’t provide access to all destinations. For the community as a whole, this has the additional consequence of deterring potential cyclists, thereby making it that much harder to achieve our climate goals of reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled and greenhouse gas emissions.
On the other hand, there is rarely any serious consideration of the many obvious possibilities for car owners to meet their vehicle storage needs without street parking. Cleaning out the garage and driveway can make more off-street parking available. Any combination of walking, biking, transit, trip-linking, carpooling, and using ride-hailing services can reduce the perceived need to keep so many vehicles around. Making adjustments to deal with new situations should not be the responsibility solely of cyclists.
It is not the government’s job to tell people how many cars they should own. But neither is it the government’s duty to subsidize that personal choice by providing extra free parking, especially when providing parking is done at the expense of the safety of vulnerable road users.
Keep the Sunnyvale General Plan's Land Use and Transportation Element in your back pocket. Mention these policies in conversations with family and friends, as well as with councilmembers and city staff.
Footnote
[1] From the Sunnyvale General Plan, Land Use and Transportation Element, Ch. 3, pp. 3-26 to 3-27.
POLICY LT-3.8: Prioritize safe accommodation for all transportation users over non-transport uses. As City streets are public spaces dedicated to the movement of vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians, facilities that meet minimum appropriate safety standards for transport uses shall be considered before non-transport uses are considered.
POLICY LT-3.9: As parking is the temporary storage of transportation vehicles, do not consider parking a transport use of public streets.
POLICY LT-3.10: Prioritize street space allocated for transportation uses over parking when determining the appropriate future use of street space.
About the Author
Kevin Jackson is a long-time active transportation advocate. He served on the Sunnyvale Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission for many years and is currently on the Board of Sunnyvale Safe Streets.