Less parking makes people happy—that is the experience of Copenhagen. While this is counterintuitive for motorists, consider this: There is one thing always required in every zone of every US city: parking. The car at one’s disposal, has not only the space where it now sits, but there are four or five free spaces all over town just waiting for motorists to drive there. Robert Moses, The Power Broker, got us to build our cities this way: for the free flow of automobiles. And we still live with the consequences, which turned out to be congestion, road rage and sprawl.
Some European cities took deliberate steps to change this: to reclaim their cities from the insistent presence of cars. It was not easy. Motorists were unhappy. But deliberate actions taken over 50 years have enabled Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and now Berlin, Brussels and Paris to reclaim public spaces from the car.
Some European cities took deliberate steps to change this: to reclaim their cities from the insistent presence of cars. It was not easy. Motorists were unhappy. But deliberate actions taken over 50 years have enabled Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and now Berlin, Brussels and Paris to reclaim public spaces from the car.
Here is Nytorv, an important square in central Copenhagen, in the early 1960s.
And here is Nytorv 50 years later:
As is said of Amsterdam, “Converting dreary, polluted, and cramped roadways into play streets for children, pedestrians, and cyclists have revitalized many public spaces for the better.” And in Paris, at the end of 2020, Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced that Paris would be removing 70,000 surface parking spots to create more space in crowded and narrow streets.
For more information about ongoing efforts in these and other European cities, read the article How Does Parking Shape City Planning?