- cross-posted to:
- fuckcars@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- fuckcars@lemmy.world
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This is great… So long as the city also increases access to safe public transportation to the citizens.
You can read the caveat in the article:
That means apartment developers no longer have to provide parking for tenants if their project comes within a half mile of a Chicago Transit Authority and Metra rail line or a quarter mile away from a bus line.
This is inherently predicated on existing public transit lines. And eliminating more personal vehicle traffic means better bus transit and micromobility.
Yeah I saw that. My issue was due to what happened in Charlotte, NC where they had a very similar wording for their downtown area only to later remove the caveat where the builders had to check what public transportation is already available.
Seattle, and Washington state to a lesser degree, have done something similar along its huge light rail expansion. Any site within 1/2 mile of its stations has no parking requirements, and I think can be 4 stories tall. Anything within a quarter mile can be 6 stories.
That is one tricky part. Chicago’s transit system has an unfortunately large funding deficit that the city and state are struggling to rectify. As I understand it, general ridership took a 1-2 punch from both COVID and the WFH movement (which, yes, was supercharged by COVID). Last article I saw said that some business buildings downtown have lost up to 50% of their tenants.
One thing that might help is the state is working on unifying Chicago’s three (yes, three) transit systems: CTA (the one most people are familiar with), Metra (longer distance trains for suburban commuters), and PACE (near suburb buses). Might streamline some things and save some money, but I don’t think that will fully close the gap. As a transit fan and advocate, I really hope we can find a way out of this mess.
Chicago has pretty good mass transit.
I’d be fine with this sort of thing if the people living in the new developments weren’t allowed to register cars. Otherwise they’re using a public resource without contributing their share.
Some places thankfully do that. They limit how many cars people can own per 4 block radius (at least where I live). This limits how many cars people can own. I think limiting car ownership is a better approach than building in car parking.
Basically appartment developers used to be required to supply parking for residents near transit lines, but now aren’t. Personally, I would make it hard to charge people for parking: people who drive win and also eliminates profit incentive to build parking.
