Originally Posted by
sauerwald
One thing that confuses me is why most municipalities feel obligated to provide free on street parking whenever they design a street. Additional road width for parking makes it more difficult to accommodate bicycles in-lane, and harder to provide good sidewalks. In a commercial area, parking should be centralized, and preferably multi level so that it does not contribute to sprawl, and allows for a more walkable environment. Within a residential area, parking for residents should be provided on the property.
I agree with you. If a business "needs" it's own parking then their building should be designed so that parking is provided either under or over the building. In metropolitan areas there should be parking every so many blocks. With maybe some sort of shuttle service from where the parking is to the where the shopping is. Having the people who park there parking fee cover the shuttle pass fees as well.
The shuttle pass could be used to take any shuttle to any shopping destination. And given that coding them to the location of the car is a no-brainier having a scanner that reads the cards and tells the holder where their car is parked and the shuttles to take to get back to it in the shortest amount of time.
Businesses that have parking either under or over their business can have greater control over who uses their parking areas. And if a customer parks there and wishes to leave their car there and go shopping elsewhere they could be charged extra for doing so.
The question is how much parking should each residence provide?