Street standards as parking policy: rethinking the provision of residential street parking in American suburbs

This paper examines the parking mandate in residential street standards in the U.S. Based on literature review and a national survey of 97 principal cities in the top 52 metro areas, it reveals two unjustified assumptions behind the mandate: traffic lanes must maintain the continuous alignment even with limited, slow traffic and parking demand must be satisfied with dedicated parking lanes in absence of price. The mandate is likely to force market to over-supply parking and under-supply housing. The paper calls for the removal of the parking mandate from street standards, and the deregulation of the residential street parking market.