San Francisco's Running Out of Room for Cars

In terms of land area, San Francisco’s a small city. Yet if current policies persist, the city will build 92,000 parking spots for residents by 2040, on just 49 square miles of land.

1 minute read

February 17, 2014, 1:00 PM PST

By Anna Bergren Miller @abergrenmiller

rutlo / flickr

That’s led some observers to suggest that now is the time to get real about changing San Francisco’s transportation habits. It’s not just a question of ideology, as Aaron Bialick points out. Beyond environmental concerns is a simple question of space: how many more cars can the city realistically hold?

Even the the Market-Octavia Plan, which has a strict maximum parking ratio, fails to set an upward limit on parking expansion. “Unless plans and the priorities of our leaders change . . . , San Francisco is destined to have worse congestion, less effective transit, and unlivable streets,” writes Bialick.

FULL STORY: The More Space SF Uses to Store Cars, the Less We'll Have to House People

Friday, February 14, 2014 in SF Streetsblog

Environment Infrastructure Land Use Transportation California Parking Congestion Emissions Parking Ratios Market-Octavia Plan San Francisco View More

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