Learn More

• 

  Background

  Study Background
  

  As Dallas continues to grow in population and certain areas mature into more active urban villages, the City is rethinking how it balances transportation and mobility options. The financial and social costs of plentiful, free parking compared to the lost housing and economic development potential are bringing citywide parking requirements into question. For the individual resident, commuter, or visitor, large concrete parking lots contribute to poor health and well-being by absorbing and retaining heat, while the ubiquitous provision of parking encourages driving alone in gasoline-powered vehicles, a lifestyle which has been closely linked to poor health outcomes. City policy calling for a closer analysis of the impacts of minimum parking requirements comes from documents such as the Comprehensive Environmental & Climate Action Plan (CECAP), Connect Dallas Strategic Mobility Plan, the Dallas Sidewalk Master Plan, the Dallas Bike Plan, and the ongoing On-Street Parking & Curb Management Policy Study and ForwardDallas! Future Land Use Plan update.

  On October 3, 2019, the City Plan Commission authorized a public hearing to consider "amending off-street parking and loading requirements including, but not limited to, hotel, restaurant, multifamily, and alcoholic beverage establishment uses, and transit-oriented development." Staff commenced this study by reviewing current regulations, peer cities, and best practices in urban planning, and then conducting case studies to and gathering input from the residents, businesses, transportation experts, and city leaders. By the summer of 2021, a burgeoning framework for zoning regulations was undergoing review until leadership and departmental changes in the City led to a pause in the study. Now, the City is continuing the study with renewed urgency.
  

• 

  Frequently Asked Questions

  Frequently Asked Questions

  
  

  Watch this short video to learn more.
  

  What changes are being considered?
  The City of Dallas is considering removing regulations that require certain amounts of parking per property so that parking around Dallas can match what we need rather than generic government mandates. By allowing right-sized parking, we can encourage a safe, walkable city with more room for homes, more opportunity for small businesses, and a more responsible impact on the environment.
  
  What are parking minimums?
  Our Development Code requires that every home, office, warehouse, restaurant, and other properties in the City provide at least a certain amount of parking spaces. For apartment buildings, it is one parking space per bedroom. For restaurants, it is one space per 100 square feet. Every type of property has a “parking minimum.”
  
  Does this cover parking along the curb?
  This code amendment does not impact curb parking. Parking minimums require parking spaces to be built on the property itself, unless the City gives special permission to count parking spaces along the curb. The City recently adopted its On-Street Parking & Curb Management Plan which contains lots of good tools and direction for managing parking along the curb.
  
  
  Why are changes being considered?
  Current parking requirements prevent much-needed new housing from being built, and drastically slow down the permitting process for the housing that is being built. These requirements also get in the way of small businesses and entrepreneurs who don’t need – and can’t afford to build – as much parking as the City requires.  
  
  Land that could be used for housing, business, or green space, or another productive use is forced to become hot, unused parking lots, which makes Dallas a less walkable and less environmentally friendly community.  
  
  Lastly, parking regulations make everything more expensive for the average person: the high cost of building parking spaces (between $7,000 and $45,000 per parking space!) is passed on to renters, home-buyers, and shoppers through higher costs of homes and products. 
  

  
  What does the City expect to happen after this change?
  Development takes a long, long time, and developers will still build the amount of parking that  is needed. However, this change will help city staff issue development permits faster, allowing the construction of more housing units and removing barriers to small businesses. Evidence from other cities has shown that removing parking requirements will also help home rental and purchase prices stay stable rather than continue to increase dramatically. Existing parking lots can be redeveloped with environmentally sensitive designs, and unused parking spaces can be used in more productive ways.
  
  Does this affect handicapped-accessible parking?
  This change will not affect handicapped-accessible parking. The Federal government requires accessible parking spaces depending on the number of parking spaces built. The very first parking space constructed must be accessible. Additionally, the City allows anyone with a handicap marker or license plate to park for free in metered curb parking spaces. With the new On-Street Parking & Curb Management Plan, the City intends to make clear and consistent signs that will help people find accessible parking spaces.
  
  My life is based on driving because of where I live, mobility impairments, transporting children, or other reasons. Will this make life harder for me?
  This proposal is not expected to make life harder for our daily trips by car. This proposal does not remove parking spaces or prevent any property owner from building all of the parking they need. Property owners would need a very good reason to actually replace valuable, existing parking spaces with anything else such as costly new housing units or commercial floor space.
  
  

  What about on-street parking and loading?

  This study concerns only off-street parking and loading regulations and will not directly amend City Code related to minimum on-street parking and loading requirements. However, the proposed Transportation Demand Management element is intended to strengthen the City's traffic engineers as they work with developers on the impact of a new development or land use and what the developer can do to mitigate issues. There is also an ongoing study of on-street parking and loading policies led by the Dallas Department of Transportation that will complement these amendments in a comprehensive approach to parking and loading.

  Will this impact Planned Development (PD) Districts?

  The answer depends on the individual PD. Where a PD refers directly to chapters 51 and 51A with their parking requirements, amendments would affect the parking requirements. Where a PD specifies its own off-street parking minimums and design guidelines for parking facilities, amendments to Chapters 51 and 51A would have no impact.

  Will these amendments make parking harder to find?

  The City's minimum parking requirements frequently force property owners to build more parking spaces than their land use generates or needs. On a broader scale, open parking is often available to serve an area but is poorly demarcated with signs, restricted to a limited number of infrequent users, or is priced at a low rate that does not reflect demand for parking in the area. These off-street parking code amendments, complemented by the Department of Transportation's ongoing Curb Management policy study, are intended to manage available public parking for destinations across Dallas by valuing those spaces according to demand by people who choose to drive. Similarly, these amendments will ensure that property owners and developers contribute to balanced transportation options besides single-occupancy vehicle trips
  

  How can I be involved? 

  You can engage with this important project in several ways! See the top of this web page to sign up for email updates or to check out the next public event. Contacting your councilmember is another great way to let your voice be directly heard. If you know community members who are interested in transportation, walkability, affordable housing, or land use in Dallas, why not send them to this web page as well?

  
  

• 

  Archived Meetings

  Archived Meetings
  

  The off-street parking and loading study saw significant staff and committee discussion in 2020 and 2021.

  Click here to find archived and recent staff reports, Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee meetings, and public input sessions.
  

  
  

• Study Background
  

  As Dallas continues to grow in population and certain areas mature into more active urban villages, the City is rethinking how it balances transportation and mobility options. The financial and social costs of plentiful, free parking compared to the lost housing and economic development potential are bringing citywide parking requirements into question. For the individual resident, commuter, or visitor, large concrete parking lots contribute to poor health and well-being by absorbing and retaining heat, while the ubiquitous provision of parking encourages driving alone in gasoline-powered vehicles, a lifestyle which has been closely linked to poor health outcomes. City policy calling for a closer analysis of the impacts of minimum parking requirements comes from documents such as the Comprehensive Environmental & Climate Action Plan (CECAP), Connect Dallas Strategic Mobility Plan, the Dallas Sidewalk Master Plan, the Dallas Bike Plan, and the ongoing On-Street Parking & Curb Management Policy Study and ForwardDallas! Future Land Use Plan update.

  On October 3, 2019, the City Plan Commission authorized a public hearing to consider "amending off-street parking and loading requirements including, but not limited to, hotel, restaurant, multifamily, and alcoholic beverage establishment uses, and transit-oriented development." Staff commenced this study by reviewing current regulations, peer cities, and best practices in urban planning, and then conducting case studies to and gathering input from the residents, businesses, transportation experts, and city leaders. By the summer of 2021, a burgeoning framework for zoning regulations was undergoing review until leadership and departmental changes in the City led to a pause in the study. Now, the City is continuing the study with renewed urgency.
  

• Frequently Asked Questions

  
  

  Watch this short video to learn more.
  

  What changes are being considered?
  The City of Dallas is considering removing regulations that require certain amounts of parking per property so that parking around Dallas can match what we need rather than generic government mandates. By allowing right-sized parking, we can encourage a safe, walkable city with more room for homes, more opportunity for small businesses, and a more responsible impact on the environment.
  
  What are parking minimums?
  Our Development Code requires that every home, office, warehouse, restaurant, and other properties in the City provide at least a certain amount of parking spaces. For apartment buildings, it is one parking space per bedroom. For restaurants, it is one space per 100 square feet. Every type of property has a “parking minimum.”
  
  Does this cover parking along the curb?
  This code amendment does not impact curb parking. Parking minimums require parking spaces to be built on the property itself, unless the City gives special permission to count parking spaces along the curb. The City recently adopted its On-Street Parking & Curb Management Plan which contains lots of good tools and direction for managing parking along the curb.
  
  
  Why are changes being considered?
  Current parking requirements prevent much-needed new housing from being built, and drastically slow down the permitting process for the housing that is being built. These requirements also get in the way of small businesses and entrepreneurs who don’t need – and can’t afford to build – as much parking as the City requires.  
  
  Land that could be used for housing, business, or green space, or another productive use is forced to become hot, unused parking lots, which makes Dallas a less walkable and less environmentally friendly community.  
  
  Lastly, parking regulations make everything more expensive for the average person: the high cost of building parking spaces (between $7,000 and $45,000 per parking space!) is passed on to renters, home-buyers, and shoppers through higher costs of homes and products. 
  

  
  What does the City expect to happen after this change?
  Development takes a long, long time, and developers will still build the amount of parking that  is needed. However, this change will help city staff issue development permits faster, allowing the construction of more housing units and removing barriers to small businesses. Evidence from other cities has shown that removing parking requirements will also help home rental and purchase prices stay stable rather than continue to increase dramatically. Existing parking lots can be redeveloped with environmentally sensitive designs, and unused parking spaces can be used in more productive ways.
  
  Does this affect handicapped-accessible parking?
  This change will not affect handicapped-accessible parking. The Federal government requires accessible parking spaces depending on the number of parking spaces built. The very first parking space constructed must be accessible. Additionally, the City allows anyone with a handicap marker or license plate to park for free in metered curb parking spaces. With the new On-Street Parking & Curb Management Plan, the City intends to make clear and consistent signs that will help people find accessible parking spaces.
  
  My life is based on driving because of where I live, mobility impairments, transporting children, or other reasons. Will this make life harder for me?
  This proposal is not expected to make life harder for our daily trips by car. This proposal does not remove parking spaces or prevent any property owner from building all of the parking they need. Property owners would need a very good reason to actually replace valuable, existing parking spaces with anything else such as costly new housing units or commercial floor space.
  
  

  What about on-street parking and loading?

  This study concerns only off-street parking and loading regulations and will not directly amend City Code related to minimum on-street parking and loading requirements. However, the proposed Transportation Demand Management element is intended to strengthen the City's traffic engineers as they work with developers on the impact of a new development or land use and what the developer can do to mitigate issues. There is also an ongoing study of on-street parking and loading policies led by the Dallas Department of Transportation that will complement these amendments in a comprehensive approach to parking and loading.

  Will this impact Planned Development (PD) Districts?

  The answer depends on the individual PD. Where a PD refers directly to chapters 51 and 51A with their parking requirements, amendments would affect the parking requirements. Where a PD specifies its own off-street parking minimums and design guidelines for parking facilities, amendments to Chapters 51 and 51A would have no impact.

  Will these amendments make parking harder to find?

  The City's minimum parking requirements frequently force property owners to build more parking spaces than their land use generates or needs. On a broader scale, open parking is often available to serve an area but is poorly demarcated with signs, restricted to a limited number of infrequent users, or is priced at a low rate that does not reflect demand for parking in the area. These off-street parking code amendments, complemented by the Department of Transportation's ongoing Curb Management policy study, are intended to manage available public parking for destinations across Dallas by valuing those spaces according to demand by people who choose to drive. Similarly, these amendments will ensure that property owners and developers contribute to balanced transportation options besides single-occupancy vehicle trips
  

  How can I be involved? 

  You can engage with this important project in several ways! See the top of this web page to sign up for email updates or to check out the next public event. Contacting your councilmember is another great way to let your voice be directly heard. If you know community members who are interested in transportation, walkability, affordable housing, or land use in Dallas, why not send them to this web page as well?

  
  

• Archived Meetings
  

  The off-street parking and loading study saw significant staff and committee discussion in 2020 and 2021.

  Click here to find archived and recent staff reports, Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee meetings, and public input sessions.
  

  
  

• 

  Dallas in the news

  ​News articles on Dallas parking regulations
  

  3/31/2025 - Hoodline - "Dallas Moves Towards Urban Revitalization with Proposed Parking and Zoning Reforms"
  

  3/30/2025 - Dallas Morning News- "How much parking does Dallas need?"
  

  3/23/2025 - CandysDirt - "City Hall Roundup: Neiman Meeting, Parking Minimums, and People Power"
  

  3/21/2025 - Dallas Morning News- "Dallas commission recommends killing parking minimums, but with exceptions"

  3/10/2025 - D Magazine - "City Plan Commission eyes compromise on parking minimums."
  

  3/9/2025 - CandysDirt.com - "City Hall Roundup: Parking Reform Takes Shape, Other Highlights"
  

  2/17/2025 - CandysDirt.com - "Complete Removal of Dallas Parking Minimums ‘Appears to be Off the Table;’ Here’s What Plan Commission is Now Proposing"
  

  2/13/2025 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas commission punts on question of parking minimums"
  

  2/13/2025 - WFAA - "Dallas proposes changes to rules requiring parking with goal of increasing housing availability"
  

  2/13/2025 - NBC DFW - "Dallas considering eliminating parking minimums"
  

  2/5/2025 - KERA - "Here's what Dallas can learn from Austin's repeal of parking mandates"
  

  2/4/2025 - NBC DFW - "Community meeting discusses Dallas parking reform, impact on affordability"
  

  2/4/2025 - MSN - "Dallas Housing Coalition to discuss parking reform and impact on affordability"
  

  2/3/2025 - Spectrum Local News - "Dallas could eliminate minimum parking requirements for new developments"
  

  12/18/2024 - Dallas Business Journal - "Dallas parking minimums felt in health clinic space, CEO says"
  

  12/16/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas parking minimums should be reformed, not axed"
  

  12/14/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Letters to the Editor — Texas government, parking minimums, billionaires, abortion"
  

  12/13/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas clinic gets boost from federal government, but county still has few health sites" (subtitle: "The CEO of Prism Health of North Texas said Dallas parking requirements are one barrier to adding clinics.")
  

  12/10/2024 - CandysDirt.com - "Is the Lot Half-Full or Half-Empty? Housing Advocates Rally to Eliminate Parking Minimums"
  

  12/6/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas delays vote on eliminating parking minimus"
  

  12/4/2024 - D Magazine - "How Close Is Dallas to Eliminating Its Parking Requirements?"
  

  11/27/2024 - Urbanize - "Proposal to eliminate parking minimums inches closer to Dalllas City Council"
  

  11/25/2024 - Planetizen - "Dallas Considers Nixing Parking Requirements"
  

  11/25/2024 - KERA News - "Eliminated parking minimums in Dallas get closer to city council"
  

  11/24/2024 - CandysDirt.com - "City Hall Roundup: Plan Commission Debates Merits of Parking Reform"
  

  11/22/2024 - The Real Deal - "Car-loving Dallas could eliminate developer parking minimums
  

  11/21/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas might eliminate parking minimums, but some aren't convinced"
  

  8/21/2024 - KERA - "These climate activists are calling for parking reform in Dallas"
  

  5/20/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas on-street parking plan will help entertainment districts"
  

  3/18/2024 - Texas Tribune - "Why some cities are getting rid of their parking rules"
  

  2/29/2024 - D Magazine - "How Parking Requirement Changes Could Benefit DFW’s Retail Market" 
  

  2/26/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Do parking minimums drive up housing costs?" 
  

  2/24/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas Cothrum: We need more parking, so stop mandating it" 
  

  2/22/202 - Dallas Morning  News - "Dallas wants to kill parking minimums.  What could that mean for drivers?" 
  

  9/13/2023 - WFAA - "Park(ing) Day resolution, consideration of parking requirement changes approved by Dallas City Council" 
  

  9/6/2023 - CandysDirt.com - "Assistant Planning Chief Says Dallas' Parking Code is Outdated and Dysfunctional" 
  

  9/8/2023 - Dallas Observer - "Council Members on Parking: One-Size-Fits-All Approach Won't Work" 
  

  9/6/2023 - NBC DFW - "Dallas debates update of 1965 off street parking rules" 
  

  9/6/2023 - KERA - "'Elimination of minimum parking requirements' being discussed by Dallas officials" 
  

  8/25/2023 - Dallas Express - "Senior City Planner Talks Ending Parking Regs" 
  

  8/16/2023 - CandysDirt.com - "Dallas Proposal to End to Minimum Parking Requirements Draws Opposition at Tuesday Meeting" 
  

  8/9/2023 - Lakewood Advocate - "Dallas Wants Your Thoughts On Off-Street Parking" 
  

  8/7/2023 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas needs to change its parking lots" 
  

  3/8/2021 - D Magazine: She Came to Fix the Parking
  

  4/28/2020 - Coalition for a New Dallas: The Politics of Parking Webinar 
  

  1/24/2020 - D Magazine - "An Overlooked Contributor to the Affordable Housing Crisis: Parking Requirements" 
  

  10/9/2018 - D Magazine - "Dallas is Overparked" 
  

• 

  Data resources

  Introduction
  

  This section provides a deeper introduction to handling and interpreting data regarding parking.
  

  Seeking meaningful insights in available data is an important part of code amendment studies.

  Data collected through deep research, counts, surveys, longitudinal observation, literature reviews, and other means can provide a raw view of life at a scale that a typical person does not see from day to day. Combining findings with previous research and anecdotal insights, and recognizing the context and limits of any particular data set, stakeholders can begin to understand underlying trends across the complex urban systems we rely upon. 

  Objective insights into parking can be uniquely invisible to the average driver for three reasons.
  First, some impacts and costs caused by parking are so spread out among the countless drivers using parking lots all over the city that trends are difficult to spot through an individual windshield. Second, some impacts, costs, and observations exist only behind the curtain of development budgets, finance requirements, traffic engineering manuals, architectural drafts, and municipal regulations that most people will never read.

  Third, insights into parking provision can be invisible to an individual driver because parking availability changes human behavior rather than merely accommodating it. In Dallas, it is easy to assume that a car trip will definitely happen (the "constant") and parking simply needs to respond to that car trip (the "variable") in order to make the system of car trips work. However, not only do developers provide parking based on anticipated vehicle demand, the reverse is true, too: each potential driver makes transportation decisions (and cumulative lifestyle shift) based on the availability of parking. The "constant" becomes the "variable" and changes the equation. This characteristic of parking availability – following a principle called "induced demand" as defined by economists Lee, Klein, and Camus in their 1999 study "Induced Traffic and Induced Demand" – is often overlooked in analysis of parking demand data; the inverse trend, called "reduced demand" or "traffic evaporation", reveals the phenomenon of vehicle activity simply disappearing from an entire road network when capacity is decreased and drivers choose alternate transportation, replace destinations, or forgo optional trips for other activity. While this paradigm tends to be applied to the physical capacity of a parking lot or roadway, parking and roadway management more broadly can be measured by accessibility, which factors in additional barriers management tools such as pricing.

  Numbers only paint a general picture.
  In addition to the hidden nature of data insights into parking, it is important to remember that driving behavior occurs at a vast geographic scale with countless factors and dispersed, often imperceptibly small moments of human decision. While our Dallas Department of Transportation and other bodies can perform studies on a block-by-block basis, travel behavior and transportation decisions made by millions of people across DFW is difficult to capture with enough precision to then infer reliable, consistent minimum parking amounts. For this reason, while the data below is useful in understanding human behavior and forming policy recommendations, there is no dataset that is both precise enough and large enough to create a definitive metric for Dallas' parking policies. The ideal parking management regulatory environment accounts for variety in urban fabric while working toward adopted City goals.
  

  Intellectual integrity and changing paradigms.
  Lastly, a note on the resources below. Until recently, the only data that was sought regarding parking was some reasonable metric of how many parking spaces a particular community, land use, or commute-shed would need in order to accommodate everyone who wanted to drive at any time, from any origin, to any destination. The Institute of Transportation Engineers' Parking Generation Manual has attempted to achieve that metric (under much criticism). Parking minimums were designed to ensure abundant parking at no cost to the driver. As this paradigm of managing parking demand proliferated, the hidden social, financial, environmental, and health impacts were unknown, unobserved, and omitted from city planning conversations. 
  

  Current research, however, is bringing new data to light regarding parking's negative externalities - those indirect impacts of requiring parking that cannot be accounted for within a particular development project's pro forma or construction context. The scholarly, professional, and theoretical resources linked below are sometimes found on websites advocating for changing, reducing, or eliminating minimum parking ratios; these are simply the scholars and organizations who are doing the relevant research. Staff's mandate is to critically analyze the data based on its own integrity and evaluate theoretical frameworks based on the soundness of their logic. Staff then compares verified insights independently with policies, plans, and goals adopted by the Dallas City Council.
  

  
  

  Stats in Brief
  

  •   Population Growth:

  City of Dallas population is projected to grow 30% by 2045 from 1.3 million to 1.7 million people. Dallas-Ft. Worth is expected to gain 4 million people and 2.2 million jobs over the same time period.

  (Source: North Central Texas Council of Governments  |  Connect Dallas  |  Dallas Area Rapid Transit: 2045 Transit System Plan, 2022)

  
  

  •   Driving's impact on the environment:

  As of 2023, 76% of residents commute alone by automobile. The annual average delay per commuter in DFW has increased from 49 hours in 2009 to 67 hours in 2017, while the mean commute time over the same period has increased from 25 minutes to 27. Accordingly, 34% of Dallas' greenhouse gas emissions come from local transportation sources, of which 98% is attributed to on-road transportation. Internal combustion engines in cars directly produce ground level ozone, causing Dallas County to fail to meet federal air quality standards. Air quality in Dallas will worsen if overall vehicle miles continue to increase. In an effort to curb this impact, Dallas aims to reduce single-occupant vehicle trips to 62% by 2050.
  (Sources: Connect Dallas  |  City of Dallas Economic Development Policy  |  Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan)
  

  
  

  •   America's parking supply...

      ... is estimated at between 500 million and 2 billion parking spots across the U.S. That's between 2 and 7 parking spaces per person. (Houston is reported to have 30 parking spaces per person);
  

      ... is estimated to take up between 3,590 square miles (the size of Delaware or Rhode Island) and 14,000 square miles (the size of Vermont or Connecticut);
  

      ... is required to be provided at twice the amount that lower-income 1-bedroom urban households need, and at three times the amount that lower-income 2-bedroom households need.
  

  (Sources: Shoup, Donald: The High Cost of Free Parking, 2005  |  New York Times: Awash in Asphalt, Cities Rethink Their Parking Needs, 2023  |  New York Times: Paved, But Still Alive, 2012  |  Ben-Joseph, Eran: ReThinking A Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking, 2015  |  Litman, Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability, 2024)

  
  

  •   A single parking spot...

      ... uses about 330 square feet (including maneuvering lane), though this number is increasing in North America as commuter vehicle sizes are increasing. The median high school parking requirement comes out to 2,005 square feet of parking area for each 995 square feet of classroom area; the median church requirement comes out to 29,250 square feet of parking area for a 4,000 square foot sanctuary; the median apartment requirement in the states of Washington and Oregon comes out to 488 square feet of parking area for a 900 square foot apartment;
  

      ... costs between $5,000 (surface) and $50,000 (structured) per space for land and construction, averaging between $20,000 and $30,000 per space in major metro areas. (Business Insider reports one structured parking stall in San Francisco can reach $85,000.) Annual maintenance costs can reach $2,000 per space or more.
  

      ... is provided free to drivers at 99% of destinations, and only about 5% of auto commuters pay the full cost that the parking space incurs;
  

  (Sources: Litman, Todd: Comprehensive Parking Supply, Cost and Pricing Analysis. Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2023  |  Shoup and Breinholt: Employer-Paid Parking: A Nationwide Survey of Employers’ Parking Subsidy Policies, 1997  |  U.S. Government Accountability Office: LIHTC Report to the Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, September 2018  |  Carl Walker's Parking Structure Cost Outlook  |  Rider Levett Bucknall's Quarterly Construction Cost Outlook Q1-2015  |  Business Insider, America is addicted to parking lots, 2023)
  

  
  

  •   Parking's impact on housing costs:

  The national average cost for a parking spot, $18,000, can increase monthly rent about $225 per dwelling unit; a parking space's impact on rent can be as high as $575 per month. Researchers estimate that required parking minimums increase U.S. rents 17%, or about $142 per month. The average single-family home in San Francisco sells for 12% more when constructed with parking than without. A 2013 study showed that a parking space added $43,000 to a new condo's sales price in downtown Los Angeles.
  

  The lowest income quintile of American residents own an average of one car per household, including 30% who own zero vehicles, whereas the highest-income fifth of the population own more than three cars per household. Both of these numbers decrease in urban areas, meaning that, in mixed-income areas, low-income households are likely to be paying through rent and purchases for parking that they do not use, while higher-income households are likely to be using parking that they don't entirely pay for in the same ways. A UCLA study estimates that carless renters pay over $440 million annually for residential parking spaces that they do not use due to parking costs being bundled into rent prices. 
  

  Conversely, studies of Los Angeles and Minneapolis found that eliminating parking minimums downtown and citywide (respectively) directly resulted in stabilized housing prices compared to increasing prices locally and regionally. 
  

  (Sources: Litman, Todd: Comprehensive Parking Supply, Cost and Pricing Analysis. 2023)  |  Gabbe, C.J. and Pierce, Gregory: Hidden Costs and Deadweight Losses: Bundled Parking and Residential Rents in the Metropolitan U.S., 2016 | Manville, Michael: Parking Requirements and Housing Development: Regulation and Reform in Los Angeles. (2013)  |  Manville, Michael: Parking Requirements as a Barrier to Housing Development: Regulation and Reform in Los Angeles, 2010  |  Pew Charitable Trusts: Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability, 2024  |  The Brookings Institution: Parking requirements and foundations are driving up the cost of multifamily housing, 2020  |  Litman, Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability, 2024)

  
  

  •   Parking's impact on driving:

  A 2015 study suggests that increasing parking spaces citywide from 0.1 spaces per person to 0.5 spaces per person likely increased automobile modeshare by 30 percentage points. Similarly, a 2021 study showed that San Francisco households, selected and matched randomly (through the city's affordable housing lottery) to a variety of residences without accounting for parking provision, changed their car ownership and driving frequency to match the provided parking. In plain terms, the households with more parking than vehicles actually bought and used vehicles more, and households with more vehicles than parking spaces actually got rid of their cars and drove less. Furthermore, the amount of parking at a particular residence had no impact on employment or job mobility of the households moving there.
  

  (Sources: Transportation Research Board: Effects of Parking Provision on Automobile Use in Cities: Inferring Causality, 2015  |  UCLA and UC Santa Cruz, What Do Residential Lotteries Show Us About Transportation Choices?, 2021)

  
  

  •   Parking reform:

  As of May 7, 2024, 54 North American cities have eliminated parking minimum citywide within the last decade. The largest ten cities to do so are:

  1.  Mexico City, Mexico (pop. 8.9 million);
  2.  Toronto, Canada (2.7 million);
  3.  Edmonton, Canada (981,000);
  4.  Austin, TX (974,000);
  5.  San Jose, CA (971,000);
  6.  San Francisco, CA (882,000);
  7.  Portland, OR (655,000);
  8.  Raleigh, NC (468,000);
  9.  Minneapolis, MN (430,000);
  10.  Lexington, KY (341,000).

  Other Texas cities that have eliminated citywide parking minimums include Bastrop, Taylor, and Bandera. Zooming out, the states of Oregon and California have passed statewide legislation prohibiting parking minimums near transit stations, while Connecticut and Maine have passed legislation reducing or eliminating minimums for certain land uses. Legislation has been proposed in Minnesota and Colorado that would prohibit all parking minimums by local jurisdictions. In addition to citywide elimination, over 1,800 American cities have eliminated minimums in specific areas such as commercial centers, main street corridors, and around transit stations. Over 700 other cities have reduced parking minimums or established parking maximums.

  (Source: Parking Reform Network, 2024)
  

  
  

  •   Parking construction after reform:

  In Seattle, Washington, a study of 868 new multifamily buildings permitted after parking reforms in 2012 showed that 59% of the new apartments - over 35,000 units - would have not been allowed without the reform. Corresponding precisely with an earlier study of showing that 40% of parking spaces in King County (which includes Seattle) never get used, the new multifamily buildings built 40% less parking, indicating a "right-sizing" effect where provision of parking matched demand for it.

  In Buffalo, New York, 36 major residential and mixed-use developments were reviewed two years after the 2017 citywide elimination of parking requirements, showing that 68% of new apartment units would not have been permitted before the parking reform, while still producing 70% of the parking. 
  

  In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a 2015 reduction in parking minimums and 2021 citywide elimination of minimums allowed a moderately downward trend in parking construction to continue, falling from an annual average of one parking space per dwelling unit in 2011 to 0.7 spaces per unit in 2023. 
  

  (Sources: Hess, Daniel Baldwin and Rehler, Jeffrey: Minus Minimums: Development Response to the Removal of Minimum Parking Requirements in Buffalo (NY), 2021  |  Gabbe, C.J.; Pierce, Gregory; Clowers, Gordon: Parking policy: The effects of residential minimum parking requirements in Seattle, 2020  |  Sightline Institute: Parking Reform Legalized Most of the New Homes in Buffalo and Seattle, 2023  |  Nextcity.org: Ending Minimum Parking Requirements Was a Policy Win for the Twin Cities, 2023)

  
  

  More information
  

  The following articles and websites offer consolidated discussions of insights into parking. 
  

  "Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability" - Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2024
  

  "Comprehensive Parking Supply, Cost and Pricing Analysis" - Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2023
  

  These documents outline research on the costs of providing parking and the resulting impact on rent, mortgage, and other general community expenses. They conclude that parking and parking mandates produce more parking than people would use, and that this overproduction disproportionately burdens lower-income households.
  

  "The High Cost of Free Parking (summarized)" - Parkade, 2021
  The High Cost of Free Parking (book, Donald Shoup, 2005)
  Donald Shoup's full list of publications
  

  The High Cost of Free Parking is a book published by Professor Donald Shoup in 2005 addressing the negative externalities of parking requirements. Notable for its length and in-depth research, Parkade has drawn out insights contained in the full book. Generally, the book concludes that parking requirements add financial expenses to life in a city, especially for households that do not drive, and result in poor use of a city's land.
  

  Parking costs graphed - Graphing Parking, 2015
  

  This website contains several easy-to-digest diagrams to help visualize some of the data presented above.
  

  Staff compilation of parking studies of locations within Dallas - Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee meeting, 2020
  

  Staff's report from September 2020 compiled past parking studies on numerous locations around Dallas. The theme across these studies is that parking across Dallas is abundant but mismanaged. Mismanagement of parking spaces, combined with motorists' expectation to find an available parking space very close to their destination's front door, creates the impression of inadequate parking.
  

  NCTCOG's Deep Ellum Parking Study, 2024
  

  The North Central Texas Council of Governments recently completed a study of parking demand and provision in the Deep Ellum entertainment area in central Dallas. The takeaways echoed staff's review of past parking studies - plenty of parking is available at even the busiest nights in the popular entertainment district; however, it is mismanaged, which creates the perception of inadequate supply.
  

• 

  Books and articles

  Books on parking regulations

  Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, Henry Grabar, 2023

  Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, Jeff Speck, 2018

  ReThinking A Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking, Eran Ben-Joseph, 2015

  Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, Charles Montgomery, 2013

  The High Cost of Free Parking, Donald Shoup, 2011

  Stuck in Park: How Mandatory Parking Minimums Hurt American Cities (e-book provided by www.strongtowns.org/parking)

  Other Resources

  Interactive parking mandates webmap, Parking Reform Network

  Other news and topical articles 
  

  Michael Manville. How Parking Destroys Cities. Parking requirements attack the nature of the city itself, subordinating density to the needs of the car. MAY 18, 2021 in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/parking-drives-housing-prices/618910/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

  
  

  Anthony Dedousis and Michael Manville. Paring Requirements Are Not a Useful Bargaining Chip for Increasing Affordable Housing. In StreetsBlogCal: https://cal.streetsblog.org/2021/05/19/parking-requirements-are-not-a-useful-bargaining-chip-for-increasing-affordable-housing/  

  Calgary Herald, A proposal that could remove minimum parking requirements for commercial real-estate developments goes to Calgary City Council Monday, November 1, 2020

  Parking Tool Box: North Central Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG)

  Dallas Area Rapid Transit Red & Blue Line Corridors Transit-Oriented Development Parking Study: NTCOG

  General Tax Abatement Policy: City of Fort Worth

  Transit Priority Area Multifamily Residential Parking Standards: City of San Diego

  Improving the Way Developers and Planners Assess Parking Demand: Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council

  The Boston Globe, Article on Parking Spaces, July 24, 2019

  Streetsblog USA, Article on December 12, 2018

  The Transformation of Parking: National Apartment Association

  The Palo Alto Weekly, Article on Parking, May 31, 2018

  The Seattle Times, Article on Parking, August 11, 2017

  West Palm Beach (WPB) Transportation Solutions Presentation: West Palm Beach

  Kansas City Street Studies: Kansas City Regional Transit Vision

  Hidden parking rules hurt our cities. Will Chilton and Paul Mackie of Mobility Lab explain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akm7ik-H_7U

  How Cities are Curbing Their Parking, Congress for New Urbanism 2019, Donald Shoup presentation: Presentation Link

  NCTCOG Parking Toolbox Video on Smart Parking: https://www.parkingtoolboxntx.org/     

  ITE Journal February 2019

  APA Practice Parking Reform - February 2020
  

• ​News articles on Dallas parking regulations
  

  3/31/2025 - Hoodline - "Dallas Moves Towards Urban Revitalization with Proposed Parking and Zoning Reforms"
  

  3/30/2025 - Dallas Morning News- "How much parking does Dallas need?"
  

  3/23/2025 - CandysDirt - "City Hall Roundup: Neiman Meeting, Parking Minimums, and People Power"
  

  3/21/2025 - Dallas Morning News- "Dallas commission recommends killing parking minimums, but with exceptions"

  3/10/2025 - D Magazine - "City Plan Commission eyes compromise on parking minimums."
  

  3/9/2025 - CandysDirt.com - "City Hall Roundup: Parking Reform Takes Shape, Other Highlights"
  

  2/17/2025 - CandysDirt.com - "Complete Removal of Dallas Parking Minimums ‘Appears to be Off the Table;’ Here’s What Plan Commission is Now Proposing"
  

  2/13/2025 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas commission punts on question of parking minimums"
  

  2/13/2025 - WFAA - "Dallas proposes changes to rules requiring parking with goal of increasing housing availability"
  

  2/13/2025 - NBC DFW - "Dallas considering eliminating parking minimums"
  

  2/5/2025 - KERA - "Here's what Dallas can learn from Austin's repeal of parking mandates"
  

  2/4/2025 - NBC DFW - "Community meeting discusses Dallas parking reform, impact on affordability"
  

  2/4/2025 - MSN - "Dallas Housing Coalition to discuss parking reform and impact on affordability"
  

  2/3/2025 - Spectrum Local News - "Dallas could eliminate minimum parking requirements for new developments"
  

  12/18/2024 - Dallas Business Journal - "Dallas parking minimums felt in health clinic space, CEO says"
  

  12/16/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas parking minimums should be reformed, not axed"
  

  12/14/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Letters to the Editor — Texas government, parking minimums, billionaires, abortion"
  

  12/13/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas clinic gets boost from federal government, but county still has few health sites" (subtitle: "The CEO of Prism Health of North Texas said Dallas parking requirements are one barrier to adding clinics.")
  

  12/10/2024 - CandysDirt.com - "Is the Lot Half-Full or Half-Empty? Housing Advocates Rally to Eliminate Parking Minimums"
  

  12/6/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas delays vote on eliminating parking minimus"
  

  12/4/2024 - D Magazine - "How Close Is Dallas to Eliminating Its Parking Requirements?"
  

  11/27/2024 - Urbanize - "Proposal to eliminate parking minimums inches closer to Dalllas City Council"
  

  11/25/2024 - Planetizen - "Dallas Considers Nixing Parking Requirements"
  

  11/25/2024 - KERA News - "Eliminated parking minimums in Dallas get closer to city council"
  

  11/24/2024 - CandysDirt.com - "City Hall Roundup: Plan Commission Debates Merits of Parking Reform"
  

  11/22/2024 - The Real Deal - "Car-loving Dallas could eliminate developer parking minimums
  

  11/21/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas might eliminate parking minimums, but some aren't convinced"
  

  8/21/2024 - KERA - "These climate activists are calling for parking reform in Dallas"
  

  5/20/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas on-street parking plan will help entertainment districts"
  

  3/18/2024 - Texas Tribune - "Why some cities are getting rid of their parking rules"
  

  2/29/2024 - D Magazine - "How Parking Requirement Changes Could Benefit DFW’s Retail Market" 
  

  2/26/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Do parking minimums drive up housing costs?" 
  

  2/24/2024 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas Cothrum: We need more parking, so stop mandating it" 
  

  2/22/202 - Dallas Morning  News - "Dallas wants to kill parking minimums.  What could that mean for drivers?" 
  

  9/13/2023 - WFAA - "Park(ing) Day resolution, consideration of parking requirement changes approved by Dallas City Council" 
  

  9/6/2023 - CandysDirt.com - "Assistant Planning Chief Says Dallas' Parking Code is Outdated and Dysfunctional" 
  

  9/8/2023 - Dallas Observer - "Council Members on Parking: One-Size-Fits-All Approach Won't Work" 
  

  9/6/2023 - NBC DFW - "Dallas debates update of 1965 off street parking rules" 
  

  9/6/2023 - KERA - "'Elimination of minimum parking requirements' being discussed by Dallas officials" 
  

  8/25/2023 - Dallas Express - "Senior City Planner Talks Ending Parking Regs" 
  

  8/16/2023 - CandysDirt.com - "Dallas Proposal to End to Minimum Parking Requirements Draws Opposition at Tuesday Meeting" 
  

  8/9/2023 - Lakewood Advocate - "Dallas Wants Your Thoughts On Off-Street Parking" 
  

  8/7/2023 - Dallas Morning News - "Dallas needs to change its parking lots" 
  

  3/8/2021 - D Magazine: She Came to Fix the Parking
  

  4/28/2020 - Coalition for a New Dallas: The Politics of Parking Webinar 
  

  1/24/2020 - D Magazine - "An Overlooked Contributor to the Affordable Housing Crisis: Parking Requirements" 
  

  10/9/2018 - D Magazine - "Dallas is Overparked" 
  

• Introduction
  

  This section provides a deeper introduction to handling and interpreting data regarding parking.
  

  Seeking meaningful insights in available data is an important part of code amendment studies.

  Data collected through deep research, counts, surveys, longitudinal observation, literature reviews, and other means can provide a raw view of life at a scale that a typical person does not see from day to day. Combining findings with previous research and anecdotal insights, and recognizing the context and limits of any particular data set, stakeholders can begin to understand underlying trends across the complex urban systems we rely upon. 

  Objective insights into parking can be uniquely invisible to the average driver for three reasons.
  First, some impacts and costs caused by parking are so spread out among the countless drivers using parking lots all over the city that trends are difficult to spot through an individual windshield. Second, some impacts, costs, and observations exist only behind the curtain of development budgets, finance requirements, traffic engineering manuals, architectural drafts, and municipal regulations that most people will never read.

  Third, insights into parking provision can be invisible to an individual driver because parking availability changes human behavior rather than merely accommodating it. In Dallas, it is easy to assume that a car trip will definitely happen (the "constant") and parking simply needs to respond to that car trip (the "variable") in order to make the system of car trips work. However, not only do developers provide parking based on anticipated vehicle demand, the reverse is true, too: each potential driver makes transportation decisions (and cumulative lifestyle shift) based on the availability of parking. The "constant" becomes the "variable" and changes the equation. This characteristic of parking availability – following a principle called "induced demand" as defined by economists Lee, Klein, and Camus in their 1999 study "Induced Traffic and Induced Demand" – is often overlooked in analysis of parking demand data; the inverse trend, called "reduced demand" or "traffic evaporation", reveals the phenomenon of vehicle activity simply disappearing from an entire road network when capacity is decreased and drivers choose alternate transportation, replace destinations, or forgo optional trips for other activity. While this paradigm tends to be applied to the physical capacity of a parking lot or roadway, parking and roadway management more broadly can be measured by accessibility, which factors in additional barriers management tools such as pricing.

  Numbers only paint a general picture.
  In addition to the hidden nature of data insights into parking, it is important to remember that driving behavior occurs at a vast geographic scale with countless factors and dispersed, often imperceptibly small moments of human decision. While our Dallas Department of Transportation and other bodies can perform studies on a block-by-block basis, travel behavior and transportation decisions made by millions of people across DFW is difficult to capture with enough precision to then infer reliable, consistent minimum parking amounts. For this reason, while the data below is useful in understanding human behavior and forming policy recommendations, there is no dataset that is both precise enough and large enough to create a definitive metric for Dallas' parking policies. The ideal parking management regulatory environment accounts for variety in urban fabric while working toward adopted City goals.
  

  Intellectual integrity and changing paradigms.
  Lastly, a note on the resources below. Until recently, the only data that was sought regarding parking was some reasonable metric of how many parking spaces a particular community, land use, or commute-shed would need in order to accommodate everyone who wanted to drive at any time, from any origin, to any destination. The Institute of Transportation Engineers' Parking Generation Manual has attempted to achieve that metric (under much criticism). Parking minimums were designed to ensure abundant parking at no cost to the driver. As this paradigm of managing parking demand proliferated, the hidden social, financial, environmental, and health impacts were unknown, unobserved, and omitted from city planning conversations. 
  

  Current research, however, is bringing new data to light regarding parking's negative externalities - those indirect impacts of requiring parking that cannot be accounted for within a particular development project's pro forma or construction context. The scholarly, professional, and theoretical resources linked below are sometimes found on websites advocating for changing, reducing, or eliminating minimum parking ratios; these are simply the scholars and organizations who are doing the relevant research. Staff's mandate is to critically analyze the data based on its own integrity and evaluate theoretical frameworks based on the soundness of their logic. Staff then compares verified insights independently with policies, plans, and goals adopted by the Dallas City Council.
  

  
  

  Stats in Brief
  

  •   Population Growth:

  City of Dallas population is projected to grow 30% by 2045 from 1.3 million to 1.7 million people. Dallas-Ft. Worth is expected to gain 4 million people and 2.2 million jobs over the same time period.

  (Source: North Central Texas Council of Governments  |  Connect Dallas  |  Dallas Area Rapid Transit: 2045 Transit System Plan, 2022)

  
  

  •   Driving's impact on the environment:

  As of 2023, 76% of residents commute alone by automobile. The annual average delay per commuter in DFW has increased from 49 hours in 2009 to 67 hours in 2017, while the mean commute time over the same period has increased from 25 minutes to 27. Accordingly, 34% of Dallas' greenhouse gas emissions come from local transportation sources, of which 98% is attributed to on-road transportation. Internal combustion engines in cars directly produce ground level ozone, causing Dallas County to fail to meet federal air quality standards. Air quality in Dallas will worsen if overall vehicle miles continue to increase. In an effort to curb this impact, Dallas aims to reduce single-occupant vehicle trips to 62% by 2050.
  (Sources: Connect Dallas  |  City of Dallas Economic Development Policy  |  Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan)
  

  
  

  •   America's parking supply...

      ... is estimated at between 500 million and 2 billion parking spots across the U.S. That's between 2 and 7 parking spaces per person. (Houston is reported to have 30 parking spaces per person);
  

      ... is estimated to take up between 3,590 square miles (the size of Delaware or Rhode Island) and 14,000 square miles (the size of Vermont or Connecticut);
  

      ... is required to be provided at twice the amount that lower-income 1-bedroom urban households need, and at three times the amount that lower-income 2-bedroom households need.
  

  (Sources: Shoup, Donald: The High Cost of Free Parking, 2005  |  New York Times: Awash in Asphalt, Cities Rethink Their Parking Needs, 2023  |  New York Times: Paved, But Still Alive, 2012  |  Ben-Joseph, Eran: ReThinking A Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking, 2015  |  Litman, Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability, 2024)

  
  

  •   A single parking spot...

      ... uses about 330 square feet (including maneuvering lane), though this number is increasing in North America as commuter vehicle sizes are increasing. The median high school parking requirement comes out to 2,005 square feet of parking area for each 995 square feet of classroom area; the median church requirement comes out to 29,250 square feet of parking area for a 4,000 square foot sanctuary; the median apartment requirement in the states of Washington and Oregon comes out to 488 square feet of parking area for a 900 square foot apartment;
  

      ... costs between $5,000 (surface) and $50,000 (structured) per space for land and construction, averaging between $20,000 and $30,000 per space in major metro areas. (Business Insider reports one structured parking stall in San Francisco can reach $85,000.) Annual maintenance costs can reach $2,000 per space or more.
  

      ... is provided free to drivers at 99% of destinations, and only about 5% of auto commuters pay the full cost that the parking space incurs;
  

  (Sources: Litman, Todd: Comprehensive Parking Supply, Cost and Pricing Analysis. Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2023  |  Shoup and Breinholt: Employer-Paid Parking: A Nationwide Survey of Employers’ Parking Subsidy Policies, 1997  |  U.S. Government Accountability Office: LIHTC Report to the Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, September 2018  |  Carl Walker's Parking Structure Cost Outlook  |  Rider Levett Bucknall's Quarterly Construction Cost Outlook Q1-2015  |  Business Insider, America is addicted to parking lots, 2023)
  

  
  

  •   Parking's impact on housing costs:

  The national average cost for a parking spot, $18,000, can increase monthly rent about $225 per dwelling unit; a parking space's impact on rent can be as high as $575 per month. Researchers estimate that required parking minimums increase U.S. rents 17%, or about $142 per month. The average single-family home in San Francisco sells for 12% more when constructed with parking than without. A 2013 study showed that a parking space added $43,000 to a new condo's sales price in downtown Los Angeles.
  

  The lowest income quintile of American residents own an average of one car per household, including 30% who own zero vehicles, whereas the highest-income fifth of the population own more than three cars per household. Both of these numbers decrease in urban areas, meaning that, in mixed-income areas, low-income households are likely to be paying through rent and purchases for parking that they do not use, while higher-income households are likely to be using parking that they don't entirely pay for in the same ways. A UCLA study estimates that carless renters pay over $440 million annually for residential parking spaces that they do not use due to parking costs being bundled into rent prices. 
  

  Conversely, studies of Los Angeles and Minneapolis found that eliminating parking minimums downtown and citywide (respectively) directly resulted in stabilized housing prices compared to increasing prices locally and regionally. 
  

  (Sources: Litman, Todd: Comprehensive Parking Supply, Cost and Pricing Analysis. 2023)  |  Gabbe, C.J. and Pierce, Gregory: Hidden Costs and Deadweight Losses: Bundled Parking and Residential Rents in the Metropolitan U.S., 2016 | Manville, Michael: Parking Requirements and Housing Development: Regulation and Reform in Los Angeles. (2013)  |  Manville, Michael: Parking Requirements as a Barrier to Housing Development: Regulation and Reform in Los Angeles, 2010  |  Pew Charitable Trusts: Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability, 2024  |  The Brookings Institution: Parking requirements and foundations are driving up the cost of multifamily housing, 2020  |  Litman, Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability, 2024)

  
  

  •   Parking's impact on driving:

  A 2015 study suggests that increasing parking spaces citywide from 0.1 spaces per person to 0.5 spaces per person likely increased automobile modeshare by 30 percentage points. Similarly, a 2021 study showed that San Francisco households, selected and matched randomly (through the city's affordable housing lottery) to a variety of residences without accounting for parking provision, changed their car ownership and driving frequency to match the provided parking. In plain terms, the households with more parking than vehicles actually bought and used vehicles more, and households with more vehicles than parking spaces actually got rid of their cars and drove less. Furthermore, the amount of parking at a particular residence had no impact on employment or job mobility of the households moving there.
  

  (Sources: Transportation Research Board: Effects of Parking Provision on Automobile Use in Cities: Inferring Causality, 2015  |  UCLA and UC Santa Cruz, What Do Residential Lotteries Show Us About Transportation Choices?, 2021)

  
  

  •   Parking reform:

  As of May 7, 2024, 54 North American cities have eliminated parking minimum citywide within the last decade. The largest ten cities to do so are:

  1.  Mexico City, Mexico (pop. 8.9 million);
  2.  Toronto, Canada (2.7 million);
  3.  Edmonton, Canada (981,000);
  4.  Austin, TX (974,000);
  5.  San Jose, CA (971,000);
  6.  San Francisco, CA (882,000);
  7.  Portland, OR (655,000);
  8.  Raleigh, NC (468,000);
  9.  Minneapolis, MN (430,000);
  10.  Lexington, KY (341,000).

  Other Texas cities that have eliminated citywide parking minimums include Bastrop, Taylor, and Bandera. Zooming out, the states of Oregon and California have passed statewide legislation prohibiting parking minimums near transit stations, while Connecticut and Maine have passed legislation reducing or eliminating minimums for certain land uses. Legislation has been proposed in Minnesota and Colorado that would prohibit all parking minimums by local jurisdictions. In addition to citywide elimination, over 1,800 American cities have eliminated minimums in specific areas such as commercial centers, main street corridors, and around transit stations. Over 700 other cities have reduced parking minimums or established parking maximums.

  (Source: Parking Reform Network, 2024)
  

  
  

  •   Parking construction after reform:

  In Seattle, Washington, a study of 868 new multifamily buildings permitted after parking reforms in 2012 showed that 59% of the new apartments - over 35,000 units - would have not been allowed without the reform. Corresponding precisely with an earlier study of showing that 40% of parking spaces in King County (which includes Seattle) never get used, the new multifamily buildings built 40% less parking, indicating a "right-sizing" effect where provision of parking matched demand for it.

  In Buffalo, New York, 36 major residential and mixed-use developments were reviewed two years after the 2017 citywide elimination of parking requirements, showing that 68% of new apartment units would not have been permitted before the parking reform, while still producing 70% of the parking. 
  

  In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a 2015 reduction in parking minimums and 2021 citywide elimination of minimums allowed a moderately downward trend in parking construction to continue, falling from an annual average of one parking space per dwelling unit in 2011 to 0.7 spaces per unit in 2023. 
  

  (Sources: Hess, Daniel Baldwin and Rehler, Jeffrey: Minus Minimums: Development Response to the Removal of Minimum Parking Requirements in Buffalo (NY), 2021  |  Gabbe, C.J.; Pierce, Gregory; Clowers, Gordon: Parking policy: The effects of residential minimum parking requirements in Seattle, 2020  |  Sightline Institute: Parking Reform Legalized Most of the New Homes in Buffalo and Seattle, 2023  |  Nextcity.org: Ending Minimum Parking Requirements Was a Policy Win for the Twin Cities, 2023)

  
  

  More information
  

  The following articles and websites offer consolidated discussions of insights into parking. 
  

  "Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability" - Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2024
  

  "Comprehensive Parking Supply, Cost and Pricing Analysis" - Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2023
  

  These documents outline research on the costs of providing parking and the resulting impact on rent, mortgage, and other general community expenses. They conclude that parking and parking mandates produce more parking than people would use, and that this overproduction disproportionately burdens lower-income households.
  

  "The High Cost of Free Parking (summarized)" - Parkade, 2021
  The High Cost of Free Parking (book, Donald Shoup, 2005)
  Donald Shoup's full list of publications
  

  The High Cost of Free Parking is a book published by Professor Donald Shoup in 2005 addressing the negative externalities of parking requirements. Notable for its length and in-depth research, Parkade has drawn out insights contained in the full book. Generally, the book concludes that parking requirements add financial expenses to life in a city, especially for households that do not drive, and result in poor use of a city's land.
  

  Parking costs graphed - Graphing Parking, 2015
  

  This website contains several easy-to-digest diagrams to help visualize some of the data presented above.
  

  Staff compilation of parking studies of locations within Dallas - Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee meeting, 2020
  

  Staff's report from September 2020 compiled past parking studies on numerous locations around Dallas. The theme across these studies is that parking across Dallas is abundant but mismanaged. Mismanagement of parking spaces, combined with motorists' expectation to find an available parking space very close to their destination's front door, creates the impression of inadequate parking.
  

  NCTCOG's Deep Ellum Parking Study, 2024
  

  The North Central Texas Council of Governments recently completed a study of parking demand and provision in the Deep Ellum entertainment area in central Dallas. The takeaways echoed staff's review of past parking studies - plenty of parking is available at even the busiest nights in the popular entertainment district; however, it is mismanaged, which creates the perception of inadequate supply.
  

• Books on parking regulations

  Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, Henry Grabar, 2023

  Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, Jeff Speck, 2018

  ReThinking A Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking, Eran Ben-Joseph, 2015

  Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, Charles Montgomery, 2013

  The High Cost of Free Parking, Donald Shoup, 2011

  Stuck in Park: How Mandatory Parking Minimums Hurt American Cities (e-book provided by www.strongtowns.org/parking)

  Other Resources

  Interactive parking mandates webmap, Parking Reform Network

  Other news and topical articles 
  

  Michael Manville. How Parking Destroys Cities. Parking requirements attack the nature of the city itself, subordinating density to the needs of the car. MAY 18, 2021 in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/parking-drives-housing-prices/618910/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

  
  

  Anthony Dedousis and Michael Manville. Paring Requirements Are Not a Useful Bargaining Chip for Increasing Affordable Housing. In StreetsBlogCal: https://cal.streetsblog.org/2021/05/19/parking-requirements-are-not-a-useful-bargaining-chip-for-increasing-affordable-housing/  

  Calgary Herald, A proposal that could remove minimum parking requirements for commercial real-estate developments goes to Calgary City Council Monday, November 1, 2020

  Parking Tool Box: North Central Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG)

  Dallas Area Rapid Transit Red & Blue Line Corridors Transit-Oriented Development Parking Study: NTCOG

  General Tax Abatement Policy: City of Fort Worth

  Transit Priority Area Multifamily Residential Parking Standards: City of San Diego

  Improving the Way Developers and Planners Assess Parking Demand: Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council

  The Boston Globe, Article on Parking Spaces, July 24, 2019

  Streetsblog USA, Article on December 12, 2018

  The Transformation of Parking: National Apartment Association

  The Palo Alto Weekly, Article on Parking, May 31, 2018

  The Seattle Times, Article on Parking, August 11, 2017

  West Palm Beach (WPB) Transportation Solutions Presentation: West Palm Beach

  Kansas City Street Studies: Kansas City Regional Transit Vision

  Hidden parking rules hurt our cities. Will Chilton and Paul Mackie of Mobility Lab explain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akm7ik-H_7U

  How Cities are Curbing Their Parking, Congress for New Urbanism 2019, Donald Shoup presentation: Presentation Link

  NCTCOG Parking Toolbox Video on Smart Parking: https://www.parkingtoolboxntx.org/     

  ITE Journal February 2019

  APA Practice Parking Reform - February 2020