College Campuses Prepare for a Future Without Parking

"With just one parking space for every five people, on a campus of roughly 65,000, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has one of the lowest parking ratios of any major university in the country," according to an article by Lisa Prevost.

"Because visitors to the 936-acre campus often have a hard time finding parking, the university’s latest master plan, nearing completion, recommends an additional 2,200 spaces over the next 20 to 40 years," adds Prevost.

But Gary A. Brown, the director of campus planning, is hoping none of that will be necessary. "When Mr. Brown looks into the future, he sees a campus even more reliant on ride-hailing services like Uber and car-sharing services like Zipcar, as well as the likely emergence of autonomous vehicles, trends that could substantially decrease parking demand," according to Prevost.

Prevost surveys the opinion of designers, research, and parking consultants, to see if Brown's predictions could come to fruition.