#BlackFridayParking Live Feed – Visit the live feed here.

Today, across the nation strongtowns.org is helping to document in photos the absurdity of minimum parking requirements. There isn’t a more anti-business policy a town can enact than minimum parking regulations.

From Strongtowns.org – For years, American cities have required businesses to provide an amount of parking based on the anticipated peak demand. That peak demand is commonly believed to be “Black Friday”, the day after Thanksgiving. Cities disregard that businesses may not find it in their interests to devote valuable space and resources to providing parking spaces that will only be used once or twice a year. (or as most of these photos demonstrate…. never) Ostensibly the greater apostasy — from a regulatory standpoint — would be for a driver to show up in their automobile this Friday and not be able to quickly find a place to park. (#ohthehorror!) To avoid that horror, we set aside all of our “pro-businesses” inklings and roll out the red tape of parking minimums.

Fortunately, many cities have repealed minimum parking requirements. Many more are considering taking such a step. Let’s give them a push by helping them see the folly of their ways.

 

Here are some I added to the #blackfridayparking live feed from LMT and another Scott Alderfer posted from nearby South Mall. In every photo there is ample parking. Sure, if you want a spot 50 feet from the front door you might have to circle for a minute…. #horrors!!! But if you don’t mind walking a reasonable distance in each example there is literally a sea of wasted prime commercial space that’ll never be used in any meaningful fashion and will never provide any value to our community.

Each photo demonstrates overbuilt parking on the single busiest shopping day of the entire year.

South Mall, Allentown PA.#PoorParkingPlanning #TooManyParkingSpaces #BlackFridayParking pic.twitter.com/nvcROJNRdF

Black Friday 11am. Counted rows and rows of empty spaces that will never be used. This is wasted space on our most critical commercial corridor. Surface parking is the absolute lowest use of prime space. For years and years we’ve over regulated parking.