48
votes
Montreal becomes largest North American city to eliminate mandatory minimum parking spots
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- Authors
- Lorraine Carpenter, Matthew Renfrew
- Published
- Jun 18 2024
- Word count
- 147 words
I'm not familiar with this issue at all, but it kind of seems like a recipe for disaster. Unless no one in Montreal owns cars, I guess.
Encourages more foot and bike traffic, which encourages density, which reduces transit time, which leads to healthy cities with less traffic than it would have otherwise.
I only think this is true if the city itself continues to take measures to encourage this trend. I'm sure there have to be cities who don't have mandatory minimums and are a nightmare, because the paid parking gig is too profitable.
I recommend checking out Not Just Bikes or Adam Something. As wundumguy said, it's actually a good thing. Parking minimums cause a lot of systemic problems in North America.
Plenty don't, so it's really not as catastrophic as you'd think. Like in many major European cities, you just don't see as many cars in parts of the city that aren't built for them. That said, you'll still see plenty once you leave the tourist and downtown cores.
I live in a city and don’t have a car. We should build cities so that cars are purely a luxury, never a necessity.
Not having a minimum doesn't mean carparks will stop existing. But it allows a store to reduce carparks and cater to foot traffic if it is more economical to do so. The true cost of driving will be reflected in the premium paid for a store with a carpark vs one without.