How Parking Lots RUINED America
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- čas přidán 27. 02. 2024
- Parking lots are one of the uninspiring products of modern urban infrastructure. These huge swaths of pavement are dedicated to one purpose only. Parking cars. So why is it that something so common and so simple, can suck so bad?
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For further reading, check out the sources for this video here:
docs.google.com/document/d/e/...
Script: Jordan Tucker
Editor: Melody David
Lead Editor: Kirsten Stanley
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand
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What really drives me crazy, and I don't know if this is solely an American thing, is people will drive around a parking lot for 10+ minutes looking for a spot in the front half of a lot rather than park in the back half, and spend an extra few minutes to walk to their location.
I've never understood that either. Nearly everyone I know does this, meanwhile I'm begging them to just park on the outskirts so we can walk. It's similar to taking an elevator to go up one flight of stairs (for able bodied people, of course).
This pisses me off too!
My mother is one of those. I remember telling her as a kid that we could've already been in the store if we just parked. Talk about the cold shoulder for a week and the glare I got for using common sense. Woof.
Ah well, shes a bitch anyhow lol.
That's one of my biggest pet peeves. If you're able body bodied and wasting my time trying to find the perfect parking spot, I literally won't let you drive again. Going forward, I drive, my car gets abandoned at the first spot I find, even if its several blocks, and we walk, provided it's feasible to travel on foot, as car drivers should be doing in cities.
I just park all the way in the back so people don't hit my car. 🤣
I _love it_ when there are minimum parking requirements for bars and breweries that make sure everyone there can drive home. Not a mixed message at all. Not encouraging dangerous behavior one bit. 10/10
The only way to get to bars and breweries is by car tho 9 times out of 10.
@@baronvonjo1929 it's not so much the presence of the parking lot, it's the mandate that it must, under penalty of law, accommodate all people at the bar.
Though, don't get me wrong, I hope the parking lots can be done away with altogether some day.
@MrC0MPUT3R Until every single person has their single family home in a walkable distance from businesses and places of interest and we have really solid practical trains, buses, bike lanes, and more to get to further destinations and you are able to convince Americans to change their entire life we will be stuck with said parking lots.
Maybe decades of rebuilding along with decades of constant poltical will are possible. Along with several trillion dollars to fund all this new infrastructure can happen. But I doubt it.
But that certainly will never happen in my life time.
Dam right
@@baronvonjo1929 Where I‘m from everyone complains about the national train ALL the time. Strongly. Maybe too strongly, but it really isn‘t good. Same goes for public transit at more places than not. But you know what? Those trains and trams and busses are somhow still full. My city has very terrible bike lanes. Calling them solid would be an extreme overstatement. Having them suddenly end is common and ond of the easier things to me. But still a lot of people use them. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be actually practical. And it‘s not like car infrastructure is solid either.
In Hawai'i, solar panels are being erected over parking lots, especially for schools. You get shady parking in the summer and schools converting to solar.
I’m looking into this now. Super cool! Looks like New York where I am is expanding these too
that's actually so cool
Or you could build a underground parking lot with HOUSES on top of it and solar on TOP of the HOUSE
France does this too
@@Faraonqa Or reduce the amount of parking needed by reducing the need to drive everywhere
Just recently, America had its mind blown by pictures above a Taylor Swift concert. Here in Melbourne (Australia) she performed at the MCG in front of 95,000 people. They (Americans) were confused by the lack of a giant parking lot around such a big ground. We simply just take public transport to the city. There is a train station that drops you off in that precinct, that also has the tennis arenas for the Australian open, and basketball. There are also trams and obviously buses, and bike tracks to get there. No giant parking lot needed. Our transport is very very far from perfect, but it is a good example of how you can get a lot of people to one area efficiently.
I'd imagine it also massively reduces how long it takes for people to get away when the event's over. Instead of tens of thousands of cars funneling through a couple dozen parking lot entrances onto the local roads at a crawl, they filter smoothly out in every possible direction.
Last time I was in Detroit, a guy got stabbed right in front of me while on the bus, another incident, a group of cultured youths followed a young girl off the bus and ended up riding a train on her in the alleyway. This is why we drive, we don't want to get stabbed or robbed. America is NOT Australia in terms of culture and crime.
@@neoasura um, Australia has crime too, what do you think it's some kind of eden? wake up. while those two incidents you mention are very unfortunate you act like that happens 24/7 on every public transit vehicle. Those incidents are rare. Evil people will always try to prey on others, one way or another. That doesn't mean that the majority of public transit modalities aren't safe.
@@neoasura throughout the hundreds of times I have ridden the bus, the worst I experienced was some rowdy teenagers making insults at each other. We all have anecdotal experiences.
“Australia is an urban coastal nation. In 2001, 85% of Australia’s population lived within 50 kilometres (km) of the coast, but by 2019, that proportion had risen to 87% (ABS 2020b). This equates to over 22 million Australians now calling the coast home. While coastal population growth has previously been concentrated in urban centres, it is now spreading to coastal townships and villages (Infrastructure Australia 2020).”
Source: Australia State of the Environment website, accessed 3/6/2024
Essentially, Australia is one continent-sized hub-and-spoke transit model, which can be visualized like the rims on a car’s tires. It’s rather easy to create a looping system that allows for easy mass transit when *almost all* of the population is located within a loop of one another.
And then, Australia has an estimated current (March 2024) population of approximately 27 million. Compare that with America’s approximately 334.9 million (July 2023), meaning AUS has about one twelfth the population of the US. According to data from mixed sources, Australia has a per capita car ownership rate of 782 cars per 1,000 Australians, compared to 908 cars per 1,000 Americans. That’s only a difference of being in 8th place worldwide (USA) versus being in 14th place (AUS). How clogged would the roadways be with 12 times the current population?
Further, I could take some time to dive into the history of car ownership in America, specifically, because, mind you, America largely invented the automobile as it is understood to the world today. Is it any wonder that developing personal transportation vehicles at around the same time as developing mass transit vehicles would cause the personal ones to take off faster than the public ones (pun unintended)?
“You will own nothing, and be happy.” -Klaus Schwab
Japan has it's own solution for making sure that the number of cars doesn't outpace the number of spaces: prohibit people from owning cars that they can't prove they can store properly and couple that with a general nationwide prohibition on overnight street parking.
I'm so glad I live in Japan. Imagine being a country that has the largest automotive company in the world, and still has a great public transport and service.
But then Japan also has businesses like Bigmotor.
Toyota is screwed… they’re the only major car manufacturer that ISN’T investing in e.v. models. They are putting all of their R&D budget into hydrogen vehicles. They say this is because electric battery vehicles still require rare earth materials… but hydrogen cars will still be horrible for the environment so they should just start manufacturing trains instead!
@@Code7Unltd every country does have those black companies. Still, you should focus on the positive side, and not push the negatives to others ;)
@@Code7Unltd and America had theranos, wework, ftx lmao
Used to live in Japan, now in America. I constantly miss trains, buses, and even just being able to walk to places to do errands and meet friends. Americans don't know what they're missing out on.
You're probably not going to die in a parking lot accident but I've always felt it was the #1 spot for fender benders. People driving too fast, cutting between parked cars, ignoring stop signs and in general just ignoring all driving common sense.
Accurate
Indeed. Fun fact - if you’re the person backing out of a space and get hit by one of those speed racers flying through the row, you’re the at fault party. In Florida anyway. Smmfh
The entrance and exit between the parking lot and the adjacent stroad are pretty dangerous, though.
I mean, if you're a pedestrian is not so great. Especially up against those enormous SUVs.
Anytime I go to the store, people cutting across the parking lot is the main thing I have to look out for. So, SO many times I've nearly been hit because of this. And this is with me in my car. I might be behind them and properly turn to enter the parking lot, then they'll drive up further, but suddenly decide they don't want to just continue driving up the lane (which would put them in front of the store) and instead swerve to the side and just cut through the empty spots. There's a particular Walmart in my city that has a horrendous hotspot for this. They've recently painted new lines to better assist but I still see assholes cut across. The stores here already have police cars out front to deter crime, but I wish there was also an officer (not just a security guard with no power) who would ticket those cutting across.
Minnesota just banned minimum parking requirements throughout the state. So there is hope in the near future.
Minneapolis banned construction of new drive-thru's as well!
Banning minimum requirements really doesn't solve anything on it's own. If people are still forced to drive everywhere you will still require all that parking space.
@@rogerk6180 yes, until they stop separating us from where we want to go just so we buy a car this will never stop
@@cubanspy1231 lets hope it's a start of more things to come. Have to begin somewhere i guess.
In Peru there's no minimum parking spot defined, so malls tend to build 4 story buildings dedicated to parking lots in a compact area upwards or underground, and they have to estimate the parking spots needed, and usually they tend to be at 80% capacity meaning they're efficient. On paper, street parking spots don't exist because they're banned, so no business does plan to build with this requirement. But cars tend to park on streets and if you don't find a spot you go round the block and walk. This system works somehow because it's not regulated in most places and sometimes when things are not regulated people tend to find a natural order to keep things running
🎯💯
Hey from Lithuania :) In here I think we also have those minimal parking requirements, or maybe used to have, because from 2010s we only see underground or aboveground multi layered parking lots. I do work at a mall myself and we have a multi layered parking in here and I hear alot that it is confusing at first, compared to the plain field parking lots, but at winter what we see is that our mall is more popular just because you don't get cold when going into or out of the mall to your car. So idk, would be very interesting to hear abut other places and solutions, but this one as for now seems to be the best imo.
Having lived in Lima, Bogotá, and Rio, I will say, Rio is the best designed, Bogotá has the worst traffic, and Lima is far from perfect. Certainly an improvement from the US because you can actually walk to some places, but so much noise, traffic, pollution, etc. Not to mention ya'll went beyond insane with Covid restrictions. Whatever Peru does, as much as there are things that I love about the country (most of the food, the history), whatever they do from an urban planning perspective should be taken with a grain of salt, although they are still better than the US
Yeah exactly! This is how I always know parking too! In all the Asian countries I've been in. It's just much more convenient for parkers and a way better use of space. Have underground or indoor in the same building parking lots so u can search around one level at a time & just go to the building by elevator, instead of walking a couple distance away and have trouble in a maze-like zone. For smaller shops, park near a sidewalk (dedicated area). There may even be people conducting the parking in and outs for a small change.
Fuck, I hate when a two way street is crowded by irresponsible owners who park in the street. If you don't have where to park, don't get a car.
One of the dumbest things that I've noticed is parking lots that force you to get back in the car and drive to a different store that may only be a few hundred feet away - because it's literally not safe to walk.
There's a street where I live that has several strip mall type areas (with your big box stores like Target, Michaels, etc) and separate restaurants. It could've been one central parking lot with sidewalks and benches - as I have seen in neighboring towns. But no.
There is no sidewalk even between adjacent sections, little to no path behind the parking spots - forcing you to drive through the people entering and exiting stores... and there's no sidewalk on the main street... THAT YOU CANT EVEN SEE TO TURN OUT OF BECAUSE THEY PUT TALL BUSHES AND TREES THERE. RIGHT UP ON THE EDGE OF THE ROAD. No stop signs or traffic lights either. Even the big yeehaw trucks can't see around or over them. So traffic gets backed up all the way around the place because everyone's trying to get out through the one exit that has a traffic light so they don't get in an accident.
This is how all the plazas in my area are too 🙄
The "not safe to walk" rang with me. So many of the plazas I frequent don't have effing crosswalks to get from the parking lot to the store. A lot of cars just blaze through if they don't see a pedestrian way. They then get visibly annoyed if you're walking across... what the F are we supposed to do?
My Geography professor had 2 fun facts to know and tell: 1. It does rain more on the weekends because of cars. 2. It is hotter downtown because of the asphalt. I can't think that parking lots help with either of those. People have doubted me on these two facts and that their little car could have such impact on the local climate, that climate change could be on such a small local scale, but there you go. 100% true. Fact check as you like. Plus since humans are drawn more to at least natural sights, I can't help but think, seeing all that asphalt isn't doing much for people's mental health, not to mention the nightmare parking lots can be.
Yeah this is one of those things you figure out pretty quickly when living in the city. Conversely, having a lot of large buildings around reduces the temperature because of the extra shade. Walking around my city in winter, often you'll be wearing a jacket in the CBD, then take it off once you're in the lower rise areas.
The temperature problem caused by asphalt, I was aware of it, it's a huge problem. But the rain on the weekends caused by cars, never thought of it. It does makes sense though, all the pollution escaping to the atmosphere during rush hours and what not and then when there are less cars on the road clouds need to "clean" themselves and hence we have rain. Unless there's another reason for that, I will gladly listen to that, I'm genuinely interested, you got my attention lol
And also, this "steals" rain from the agricultural areas than need it more.
@@TheRealE.B. Yes. The ground water issues. Also the issues with Urban sprawl grass.
@@LordVarkson The CBD?
asfalt queen. I literally feel depressed when I see how large open spaces there are in American cities. As a european I am astonished how lng it would take to just get in a building when there are thousands of kilometers of unused spaces for cars. Like there aren't even that many cars parked
Oh, but all those unused spaces are needed for major sale days. Imagine going to the mall for a big sale, only to be unable to shop because there's no place to park.
I once worked at a mall, as a custodian. On Black Friday I had to drive the whole lot to find an open spot for just my car. I was late that day - I had no idea it would be that bad
@@dannyb9223was this many years ago? Because i saw on the news the past 2 years that all the stores in America were literally empty on Black Friday these past 2 years. The pandemic killed shopping in person and most people do all shopping online now
@@dannyb9223 Oh yes, overconsumption and overpriced things getting to what they are really worth. That is a great point!
@@lexa_power That is probably true these past few years. But keep in mind many of these stores (and related parking spaces) were designed & built decades ago... And why go rebuilding the parking lots now? It'll only cost more money to do so
@@dannyb9223 i've had to jump the curb and park in the grass before at walmart because the entire lot was full.
I’m with you on hospitals especially. I remember a time where if you were a patient, they let you park for free. Not anymore. 😠
That's just a small part of the problem with American medcare. If you're a generally healthy person, you don't feel right seeing a doctor, cuz there's a good probability your "abundance of caution" will end up in the doctor saying there's nothing wrong with you in 2 minutes, and then you get a fat bill weeks to months later.
I feel like this video glosses over the solutions and focuses on the problems. To be fair, the title is "The Problem with Parking Lots in America." With that said, I would love to see a follow-up that focuses on solutions and examples where the solutions have been implemented successfully. The Gruen article cited is nearly a decade old and ends with an optimistic vision of old malls being converted into mixed-use neighborhood spaces, so perhaps there are some good examples.
Eliminate minimum parking requirements. Many cities are doing it
the solution is literally anything other than parking
Trains, investing in rail is the only solution to car culture.
Better public transport and better access for bicycles and pedestrians, such as proper protected bike paths and sidewalks at those large arterial roads/stroads. No minimum parking requirements that demand those large lots. No more strip malls far out of town so the only way to reach them is by car. With no minimum parking requirements, having shops and stores in the city centres instead far outside will be feasible again and removing or cutting back on parking lots within the city centres will provide new space to build those. City centres are much easier to access through public transport than that strip mall far outside the town. Allow mixed-use zones, too, so that stores can be build within residential areas to allow for easier shopping where you are and can do it with a bike or on foot instead of getting into a car and that new stores in the city centre can have offices or apartments above to make good use of the space.
That sounds like the original intents when they proposed malls, to be of mixed residential, shopping and entertainment - but the bean counters insisted on retail only.
Trees should be mandatory in parking lots. Also, the smallest parking bays should be closest to the shops/mall entrances - bike bays first, then bays for mini hatch backs, then larger hatch backs, followed by sedans bays, trucks should have to park the furthest.
agreed!
Or ya know, just stop building car infrastructure. 🤦♂️
@StLouis-yu9iz If you stop infrastructure for cars you have to have alternatives going to every single family home and apartment. Which is pretty much impossible and would be worse than taking a private car.
You know some of the truck drivers will just park across 3 of the small car spaces.
@@baronvonjo1929 Well public transportation could definitely improve, and that's definitely not impossible 😅 but agreed parking infrastructure is not going anywhere any time soon.
I don't have a car, but I sometimes rent one, usually when I want to go out of the city for a day trip. One thing I notice is that when you've got a car, you start to use it even when it makes more sense not to. I've rented it, so I've gotta get as much use out of it as possible. So we come back from our day trip, and want to go to a shop. Even though there's a metro that goes directly there, we instead sit in traffic for around 10 minutes longer than the train takes, then either spend ages looking for a space to park, or have to pay 3 times the price of the train ticket to park. What's that saying? When you're holding a hammer, every problem looks like a nail?
I absolutely hate cars (like, driving, im not some intense environmental activist or smth lol). So i go out of my way to not drive. My car so frequently has a dead battery that i literally have a powerbank to jumpstart it inside at all times. So definitely not all people make use of a car just because they got it - but then again, if you rented it only for a couple days, you probably and rightfully feel like "i paid for it so i gotta use it", more so than if you actually bought it.
@@Yamyatos I've put 2,000 miles on my car over the last year. I hate driving as well now that I've moved to a city. I got an e-scooter and it's made my life so much more enjoyable.
This is precisely why I don't want a car. Walking an hour across town to buy special ingredients for cooking is my time to destress.
7:17 not to mention you just came off the highway where you were probably going 50-70 mph (100-120 kph? idk) and its a well known phenomenon that you get speed acclimated and you want to keep going fast.... in a spot where people are WALKING lol... fabulous design
Those roads are usually 35-45 mph (~55-70 km/h). Highway != freeway/motorway.
@@wta1518 depends your dialect
@@IanZainea1990 If you look at the actual road, it is clearly not limited access. Also, I looked it up and that specific road has a speed limit of 70 km/h (it's in Canada, hence metric).
@@wta1518what part of what I said made you think i wanted to continue the discussion?
@@IanZainea1990 The fact that you were wrong.
Parking lots are literal wastes of space. Someone has to pay for them, and that cost is exorbitantly expensive - so much so, that it's driving cities to bankruptcy.
very true!
you literally don't know what literally means
Parking lots in cities aren't costing city governments anything. All of the parking around every government building and many city streets is metered. What a ridiculous statement. It's hard enough to find free parking at businesses in the city, no major metro government is losing money by providing parking.
@@ericvantassell6809 "umm akshually you dont know what literally means" - 🤓☝
@@MilwaukeeWoman lol its cute that you think metering makes up the lost revenue the city could bring in by having virtually anything else on that land.
His mall parking lot footage just looks so much like my local shopping plaza it's sad. I'm guessing this horrible design of parking lot is everywhere.
People’s expectations and unwillingness to walk cause it
It's just the simplest least complicated design. Convergent evolution.
It IS my local shopping plaza. I was very confused for a bit
The most amazing thing to me was seeing a Toyrs r us still open.
They didnt shut down in Canada.
We still got one down here in Winnipeg@@zalafinari
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot 🎵
I was think of that song too!!!
The first thing that popped in my mind when I started watching the video!
When they could've just taken "A Big Yellow Taxi" instead 🎵
I'm 33, and I live in Canada, I didn't drive until this year because I got a better job with a very poor bus route (that had a shorter Saturday schedule and doesn't even run on Sundays) and it's not like people wouldn't use this bus route, a major Loblaw warehouse and a Toyota factory are on this path, I wanted to bike to work but there was no bike lanes! this street is 15 minutes long going 60/70 and has maybe 6 lights in one small area, basically if you want a higher than minimum wage job at a warehouse or factory, you need a car in my area. it sucks.
Think of all the poor Toyota factory though if they gave way to the hippies that want to bike / walk /s
@@jkibble98 oh shit, I didn't see the irony in me including the Toyota factory hahaha! I work at the Loblaws warehouse right beside the Toyota Factory, there is even a bus stop and a covered bike shelter that the warehouse provides in the parking lot, but all the roads are horrible to bike in the choices are mostly gravel, and having to merge with traffic at high speeds because the gravel is cut off by grass and curbs. and the bus route makes an hour out of a 20-minute drive on a weekday, on a weekend, forget it.
@@laserlotus5busses are just too slow which is the main reason people refuse to use them but for those of us who can’t drive there’s no other options. We need better bus routes and more frequent busses but no one wants to pay for it.
In Seoul South Korea, parking is mainly valeted and because there are not enough parking spaces, people leave their cars in neutral so they can be pushed out of the way. Most people use public transport as it is better and quicker than driving. There are also parking lots in the middle of the city, but they are more like storage units where you drive your car into the building then a machine parks it for you. It means these 'parking lots' are only as big as a small building but holds a lot of cars
This is part of why I’m so hesitant to move out of NYC (believe me there are plenty of reasons I do) because the idea of losing my public transportation & going back to a car sounds just awful. Not needing one frees up so much of my budget.
I hear that but there are definitely some cities in the US where you can thrive without a car, especially if you can ride a bike! Providence, Pittsburgh, philly, and more. I live in Providence and it is super doable to get around without driving, but I think if I didn't ride a bike it would be much harder😢😢
@@discocycle that’s fair! I noticed DC & Philly seemed to have ok train systems even though I didn’t use them while there. It’s just a shame the US doesn’t have more reliable public transit. The MTA gets me pretty much every where I need to go, but it’s definitely far from perfect.
@@emmalarson I know it's just so awful. We need to invest in the right places. I definitely think there are a lot of people who live in New York simply because they do not want to drive or physically cannot. It definitely sucks because you should have access to transit everywhere, not just in large cities
What's ridiculous is, as much space is used and work done to accomodate cars, I can *NEVER* find a proper place to lock up my bicycle/ebike!
Pedestrians and cyclists are second class citizens on the US roads.
I'm French I thought we had a car problem but thanks now I think we're pretty advanced compared to the USA 😅
Where I live, there was a daycare who built an expensive and huge backyard for the kids. Only to get forcibly half demolished because according to the square feets of the daycare, they needed x number of parking spaces. Even though they *never* use 20 or so of those mandatory parking spaces. Now the kids play in half a backyard, and the costs involved in all of this is passed to their parents as increased care fees...
Isn't that a pity? Mandatory parking minimums need to be made illegal now! They are asinine, counterintuitive, harmful to businesses and customers alike, and wasteful! It's literally wasted space.
Travel distance probably has more to do with zoning than it does with parking lots. When you have to keep the mall away from the places people live then it won't matter even if you find some kind of quantum space folding technique to stow away parked cars.
Calgary has some park and ride stations, where you have free parking further out (which I appreciate), then you take the train into the more congested areas, so you're not congesting it worse
Controversial opinion: private parking rates are not overpriced, they consider the value of the land and opportunity cost. It's public parking that is waaaay underpriced, non-driving tax payers are subsidising public parking.
Go to India, where they forget to do parking lots and proper sewage before building entire malls & communities.
I'm more stressed when I can't find a place to park my car.
Wow! You really did your research! Very impressive. And very interesting and enlightening!
I want improved public transportation. The city bus that stops just half a block from my house only comes by once every hour. I am sure more people would use public transportation if it was available in a timely manner.
My country is way too overcrowded so space is really constrained.
Therefore many Hospitals and malls here have multi level underground parking lots. I think they are better than the ones in Canada and US.
As these parking lots are directly under these malls and hospitals. So you don't need to walk, as lifts take you directly inside the building. The only inconvenience is that you need to remember the level at which your car was parked.
Final Boss: Parking Garage
Even better: private parking garages with parking fees to avoid letting the taxpayers pay for maintenance. Let only the ones who actually use it pay for it.
slowly he will turn into NJB as well
😂 I like the sentiment of NJB’s videos but he also acts like we have the means to just undo the tangled web of car dependency the U.S. has
@flytelp We do! Change in numbers baby! Speak to your local representatives!!
we freakin LOVE not just bikes, always a source of inspo for us ❤️
I don't know if anyone can reach that level of fart sniffing smugness.
@@flytelpActually, it's the opposite. He sees no end in sight for the US and Canada, and tells everyone to just move to Europe if you can.
To be fair, here in densely populated LA, parking lots are some of the last open spaces that leave breathing room and space between never-ending condo and "mixed living" buildings. It's sad that it's nice to actually get glimpses of the local hills and trees along the sidewalks where otherwise those buildings block all visibility along the roads. Would be great if they could be converted to parks, but since that won't happen, I'll take the parking lots.
In Australia I had 3 babies and never had to pay for parking, and one of those was 9 hours long with combined surgery.. the births and surgery were also free.
It's like that in most of the civilized world, but america managed to be the most rich country.. with the most messed up and most predatory systems in place of any first world country lol. Be it parking, health care, work or pretty much anything else. Heck, even the freedom they go on about all the time.. it's all bottom of the line.
Paid hospital parking isn't that common even in the US. I only see it in hospitals located in very urban areas (like downtown city centers). That's obviously still sucks, but it's still usually free to park at hospitals otherwise.
I live in Montreal and have to park on the street, and its always a nightmare to park my car when I get home from work at midnight. So I ended up getting a motorcycle and I can park pretty much anywhere now. Its great. Even when I go to stores I can usually find some cheesy place to park, or in the case of Fairview Pointe-Claire, there is reserved bike parking. We need more motorcycles or scooters on the road, as well as legalizing lane filtering, and parking requirements and traffic will drop.
No. We Need a well functioning public Transport System.
We can start by making the "good" parking spaces compact only and by designing parking lots to be safer for pedestrians overall (pedestrian deaths are on the rise due to the increase in large vehicles on the road, incentivize people who drive smaller vehicles but moreso people who don't drive at all). Reducing the amount of parking space we have and making that parking space easier to walk in with additional greenery with easy access to public transportation options that are prioritized above cars would be nice.
SUV's should get the best spots they will be the people buying the most stuff.
I ride my bike when I go shopping at Costco. That lot is pure hell.
The Costco parking lot is hell, but there's no way i'd be able to transport what I buy there without a car
Ironically, Costco is the best for car drivers because the space between the spaces is so huge, you never have to worry about hitting another car with your door, and there's plenty of room to maneuver.
How do you carry everything home?
Cargo bike, occasionally with a cargo trailer attached. Since a Costco opened up 5 miles from me that can be accessed sort-of safely by bike, I’ve done almost 100% of my Costco trips by bike, with or without a trailer.
Some actually have decent bike racks. Sadly, not mine, though I keep asking.
I’ve driven maybe twice over the last two years to it, and I think it was more to get gas from their station than anything I was buying from the store.
Costco has the best parking lots out there. Plenty of room...
My firm belief, after many years of observation, is that most parking lots are designed by people who've never parked in a parking lot. Just like most apartment complexes are designed by people who've never lived in an apartment.
Excess of anything is bad
It's there in the name "parking LOTS"
The road goes to the door, in parking lots, so you can offload your old people and then go park.. or go get the car and let the old people wait at the door and then you drive back and pick them up.. so they don't have to walk two miles.. because they can't..
In some cases, sure. In others, if they walked more, maybe they’d be better able to…walk more.
My own 70+ parents are in the latter group, mostly able but with handicap placards on their vehicles and an insistence on getting the very first Handi parking spot everywhere they go so they’ll drive around the lot till they get one, wasting time and the opportunity to actually move their limbs. It is very frustrating.
17 hours per year looking for parking??? 🤯🤯🤯 Gawd, I'm glad I don't own a car!
Maybe if you live in a highly congested city. I spend nowhere near that amount of time.
Was waiting for this video
Every time I see one of these giant empty lots I see potential. Land for more businesses and space for something beautiful. But instead we have acres of concrete in our most valuable areas of the city doing nothing. It always get me down seeing what our cities have become.
Once again a great video, keep on making great content man! ❤
"Bike? Walk? But I'm a hundred pounds overweight!!! How can I get to the all-you can-eat buffet that way?!?!?"
--- The average American
That's a gross oversimplification. The US is a huge country and 1 in 3 Americans lives in a rural small town or a suburb. Living in a city is a luxury that many Americans can't afford. But all the jobs are in the cities and rural small towns and suburbs are disconnected from cities except for the highway. So, by that logic you might be asking someone in rural California to bike or walk 50+ miles in the San Joaquin desert, and hike through miles of the Tehachapis, some of the most rugged mountains in the country in order to get to their workplace in LA.
As a European living in Japan, this is absolutely crazy! How come no one had the idea to build underground parking or parking on top OR parking garages. Why is it all flat? They're just wasting space on purpose.
When a lot of them were built land was cheap. What surprises me is why more aren't being redeveloped considering how land costs and property values have soared. Probably has a lot to do with zoning laws and minimum parking requirements.
@@frederickclause2694 That makes sense in the past, yeah. Of course the whole idea that everyone has to depend on a car doesn't help...
@@tansangirlieWe can all thank the politics behind zoning restrictions for that.
It's was done on purpose for three major reasons. Safety reasons most unground / aboveground parking garages where dangerous because it allowed people to attack you in a secluded area even if cameras and security. ; theft is also a big issue for the same reason. Then there's zoning and other laws and reasons, one if a mall or multiple shops you need to have parking close to all of them to attract people to those businesses and to prevent overcrowding from other business buildings just look the parking lot is like a moat separate that building from the neighbors buildings. And last visual advertising if you see a packed parking at a place say like home depot your first thought is something good is there maybe soom cool tools
@@Lostboy811 It's sad that this is probably true.
I binged watched about 70 of you videos this week, this is the first new one I’ve got to watch 😅
The other bad thing about parking lots is they lack dedicated sidewalks/crosswalks so pedestrians can cross safely from the street directly to the store entrance. They’re either out of the way or if they are direct they don’t go the entire distance. Seems like they only have the bare minimum required by the law so as to not inconvenience the driver.
i was in japan for a month and it changed my life. getting around tokyo - even when i got lost in some of the larger subway stations - was vastly more convenient and less stressful than driving is in my suburban hometown. everywhere was interesting to walk bc i was walking past stores, restaurants, and homes, not massive parking lots.
What I want to know as someone who doesn’t drive is why, when I go to the mall, (an activity that I don’t do very much anymore) I have to walk all the way through the parking lot from the bus stop to get to any store.
I just hate that I have to pay to park at the mall that I work at, it gets expensive.
WOW employees aren't safe huh
To get past traffic and parking fees, you could bike. But it’s a coin flip if your bike gets stolen while you’re at the store or work.
The pedestrian carpark problem is actually simple, face the cars in with a gap between for footpath, no crossover.
Also my least favorite thing about car parks is the tiny parks to cram as many in as possible then put a bunch of green spots taking up room.
I live and work in a historic city center, the commercial center where we don't have parking mandates; the type of place where people complain about how difficult it is to find parking (even though, it's not really). I regularly see couple walking around with a photographer in tow, taking their holiday/engagement photos (celebrating their actual human lives). I've literally never seen that happen at any of the modern suburban commercial hubs surrounding the city where parking mandated and "easy"/free.
I saw the title and immidiately got sad and angry. I've recently moved to USA.
LA is the ugliest city I've ever seen.
You find one beautiful thing, and right next to it you find a giant parking lot.
Yeah, LA is such a beautiful place. I'm not sure why people think it's a good idea to design it in such a way that makes being outside so uncomfortable.
Same thing in Hawaii.
I was just binging the channel while I was working I had no idea this video just came out 😂
Living in Mtl, we purposely got rid of our cars because of the parking madness. Don't even get me started when we have snow and people need to move their car all the time...
Hey Levi, I much appreciated this video from you and the Future Proof Team - I've been working as a civil engineer in the land development industry since 2015. This video challenged me to think about parking lot design differently, because being honest, I (we) really don't consider much else apart from the county and state requirements when designing these things.
I'm glad more cities in the US are starting to get rid of parking minimums
In India we have have a unique parking system that stacks up cars vertically using a hydraulic lift kindoff thing , using which we can stack about 20 cars in one car's area
how much dos it cost compared to a free parking lot ?
@@woltews almost the same
@@woltews its technically called vertical rotary parking, but we just call it parking coz it's normal here
and that number would be ?@@aimzone8672
Yeah and generally we don't have these sprawls of asphalt that you can see in America. Malls have underground parking usually and there's always an elevator close enough to where you park. Even when we have surface parking it's not designed in the way that we have to get right in front of the shop - the shops are close together while the parking is to one side. This means you can walk around and shop pretty easily.
I hate the car based system here in the US since I came here for my studies. I can so easily use public transport back in India. Delhi has such an extensive metro system that I usually never *have* to use a car.
Parking lots suck the life out of a city, and suck the joy out of life wherever they are found.
I admit there are times I may not go somewhere because the parking situation sucks. Downtown has the best restaurants. Also tend to be the most expensive and parking is convoluted.
I don’t wanna go alone.
I don’t wanna pay.
It’s not a need.
I don’t go.
Win 🏆
Agree with this except for parking lots around stadiums. They aren’t just used for parking. Tailgating is part of the sport
Really interesting take on the subject. I love this channels content.
Close to where I grew up in south Brooklyn is a strip mall at the end of Bay Parkway (it was right on the bay, so 100 points for accuracy), a few buildings were in the corner of the giant lot on the street, but everything else was on the far corner. Taking the bus dropped you off by the Wendy’s on the street corner. Then you had to hike across the giant lot. Usually I was there to get new glasses, or to get something from Best Buy.
One time I saw a car with a huge set of keys in the lock of the trunk. Keys like a janitor would have. I thought, “either it’s a careless person, or a trap.” Came back out from picking up my new glasses and yep, trap. A bunch of cops swarmed that bait car when someone grabbed the keys.
While parking decks aren't a solution to this problem they could still be useful in some instances if they were redesigned to be more accessible for the people who use them, such as a sidewalk going around the inner edge of the outer spaces and a structure in the center for those inner spaces with stairs or maybe even elevators.
Would this make the structure wider? Yes, but it would also be SAFER for the people who use it.
Now up at the top you could also add a roof with reflective tiles for radiant cooling to help mitigate the heat island effect, done just right that roof could also be used to augment the cooling systems of a nearby building (mall, event center, hotel, business building, etc, etc) and thus reduce they're energy costs.
I hate everything about parking lots, but I'm not sure where I would park if they weren't there.
If I wasn't so broke, I'd likely pay to listen to Levia rant on and on about everything to hate about parking lots. They suck!
Parking lots are the very worst aspect of the human built environment.
I remember working on a parking lot upgrade for a Major Australian Hardware store. I was a temp, my boss took 3 months off and I was left to decide the placements of new "safety features" with each of the individual store managers. it's no surprise that 15 years on they have all been removed.
My rural city has some notoriously awful parking lots, and a lot of the issues associated with that could be solved by having raised walkways. Our target has one (in an oversized parking lot) and it makes walking from a car to the store so much safer, it's astounding how rare those are
There is some logic about entering a parking lot from the front, close to the stores, and then driving towards the back. This way you can park in the first empty space you find since you want to park as close to the store as possible. If you entered from the back want to know where to closest to the store available space is, you'd need to drive to the front first and then turn around.
I agree if I was forced to enter from the back I would still drive to the front to find the best spot.
I love there's a rant about parking lot for existing, whereas many places don't even HAVE parking available.
Seeing you're in Nanaimo made my day. Was that Harbour Park Mall? I used to hang out around there in the early 90's with my sister while our dad was at work up the hill. We had such a fun time exploring the downtown area of our city on foot. But as 12 and 10 year olds, crossing the highway and the parking lot felt treacherous. Getting to the waterfront at that time was an ever bigger challenge!
Thank you for bringing a Vancouver Island perspective to the world.❤
Harbour Park is now called Port Place Mall but they didn't show it that I saw. They showed Country Club and Woodgrove though.
Parking is indeed a major business: "A parking space has sold for $1.7 million in what is believed to be the most expensive sale ever of its kind." that was in Hong Kong.
7:25 “ You are are a genius Harry, I mean Levi.” Seriously thanks for the video. -Brennan
Maybe people like Henry Ford should've thought of that, before they invented the automobile and all the trouble it eventually would entail.
I never heard of trains fighting over a parking spot for instance.
The shops also start to assume you're driving, which makes bulk shopping sort of painful. The shopping trolley dropoff points are invariably in the parking lots rather than near pedestrian entrances. This indirectly promotes shopping trolley theft.
I use my own vertical shopping trolley when I'm doing a bulk shop, but this setup is not pedestrian-friendly even when there are public transport options available.
it will never not be hilariously depressing seeing rich techbros slowly reinvent trains.
its almost surprising that they didnt start connecting teslas together at the vegas loop
Fun pro tip, most private parking companies that use the pay by phone parking systems, can’t really do anything to force you to pay. To actually enforce the ticket, they need to go to collections, which they won’t do.
As much as parking lots are bad for the environment and urban planning, I would be pissed off if all of a sudden parking wasn’t included in my rent for my apartment and I had to set an alarm to move my car once a week.
Finding street parking in a crowded area gives me anxiety and it’s annoying when you have to hunt for a spot for 10, 20, 30 sometimes even 40 mins.
Great video that touched on many of the most important points.
12:35 - I absolutely agree that automated taxis or AVs will be the key factor to finally break the cult of personal car ownership and thus also finally break the problem with vast amounts of parking needed for it.
Personal car ownership is a "boat anchor" on finances. The personal car sits idle 99+% of the time and is a depreciating asset on top of that losing 10% as soon as you drive a new car off the lot. Then add in registration fees, insurance fees, maintenance fees, fuel costs, cleaning. Its a personal finance disaster that will be all the easier to bypass when cheap widespread AV become common. I'm not even talking about the huge personal legal liability driving a personal vehicle entails!
Parking lots are also very dangerous since there are people who shoot each other over parking spots. Since I’m a healthy 40 year old adult and love walking 🚶 I don’t mind parking 🅿️ up to a quarter of a mile away from the store.🏬
Edmonton puts transit centres at most major shopping malls, and buulds park and ride lots at it LRT stations, but the problem is that transit went from being fairly cheap and safe when I was young, to being expensive, inconvenient, and sometimes dangerous today.
Edmonton also became the first major city in Canada to eliminate mandatory parking minimums, which has led to some pundits complaining about a 'war on cars'. It also jacked up parking rates in the downtown core, which stops a lot of people from going downtown now.
Odd statement. "I don't think anyone has good memories of a parking lot" .... um... Why would this be necessary? I have no fond memories of using a toilet... but I still need it. It's a tool / resource... a parking lot is a tool / resource.. it's meant to be used, not enjoyed. Not everything in this damn world exists to amuse us.
The real problen with parking lots is that there arent enough lots for Semi parking.
there should be personnel tunnel system that connects stores to parking lots. My dad told me he once worked for a grocery store that would load your groceries into baskets from the cash register under the parking lot to a lil hub where you drive up and get your stuff loaded into your car.
Lol my dad when going to the store parks in the back and take 4 spots and even park randomly because no one always park in the back. He’ll just park, stop the car and rather walk to the store. He loves the free space and that no one park near the car.
Yo Future Proof any plans to start taping about the virtual elephant tint the room,
Tech Companies
Here is the uk we actually fought to get a multi story car park listed. It was architecturally interesting and used in the film ‘Get Carter’. We failed to get it listed. Multi story car parks are a better use of space than level ground ones anyway.
Listed??
@@WindowsXP_logon_sound_25yrsago In the uk that means protected from demolition
@@tcraigh1 oh! So it was demolished?? If so that's lame! That's bad. Parking garages are good.... Unless it's going to be replaced by housing or idk... A Stargate or some shit.
The problem with bussing, biking and walking is... how do ya get all that stuff ya just bought home?
That's why North American zoning law sucks, if you can have small shops in your neighbour you don't need to buy a week or two weeks of grocery once, instead you just buy what you need for one or two days right after work. For bigger stuff, cargo bike is a thing, most small community shop will have the option for you to use their cargo bike/even free delivery to you door. Also, if you can easily walk to shops around you, just bring your own small shopping cart, that's literally $15 at Walmart
Backpack. Bring a bag. Hold it.
@@user-fn1st3mh8s I was just thinking the same thing. When I lived in Japan I could pick things up as I needed because it was on my way from the train. Easy peasy.
For walking, as mentioned, you don’t need more than a few days’ worth, and there are many models of folding wheeled shopping carts that will hold two large paper grocery bags worth of stuff. They are narrow enough to take onto buses or trains. If you want more capacity, there are larger ones that will hold 4 large paper grocery bags worth of stuff.
For cycling, any rear rack can hold panniers for two large paper grocery bags worth of stuff, plus what you can strap to the top of said rack. If you get a cargo bike, you can carry a lot more.
My mid-tail cargo bike can hold six paper grocery bags worth of stuff between its large pannier bags and the front basket, plus more strapped to the top of the rear rack, and I can attach a cargo trailer if I need even more capacity (not typical). Except for the large flat screen tv I got last month, I’ve not had to use my car to make a Costco run since one opened up 5 miles from me a couple years ago.
There are cargo bikes with even more capacity, long-tailslike the Radwagon or any Yuba, or ones with a large box in front, which can also carry stuff on a rear rack like any other bike.
Electric motor assist has made hauling or towing cargo a lot easier, well worth it on a cargo bike.
@@chow-chihuang4903 And then it rains.
at 7:33 he's right on this one. we a have an out door mall here like that and it sucks. meanwhile i was at walmart tonight and theirs the lot's rear is accessible right off the street.
Parking lots also have a lot more distractions than driving on the road, driver’s stopping frequently, looking at things like store fronts and signs and not the road, people walking and running, and people using the parking lot for other things.
You could honestly make a whole separate video about how messed up privately-owned parking lots are
I had to rewind the video to ensure it was the case and funnily enough we live in the same city lmao! there are far too many malls with such dread-inducing parking lots... It's also such an un-walkable city due to the car dependency I remember almost getting hit by a car in one of those parking lots while walking there for my part time job after school. Thanks for the video, i am gonna subscribe to support my local youtuber!!!