Too Many Cars

THE PARKING PROBLEM

FOR many Americans the most worrisome, day-to-day problem is not the Russian menace or Washington politics, but where to park. With U.S. auto registrations topping 50 million--and increasing at a fast rate--more and more cities are banning street parking to speed up traffic. Thus there is an increasing number of motorists to compete for fewer places. Every day; for example, 260,000 vehicles enter downtown Boston to compete for 82,000 spaces. In Louisville the problem is even worse: 125,000 motorists jockey for 17,600 spaces. Most U.S. cities have ignored the soaring automobile registrations, done little to keep up with the need for new parking space.

But the parking problem is getting too big, and too costly, to ignore any longer. The lack of curb space in New York City adds an extra $350 million yearly to deliverymen's costs. New York's movie and theater owners estimate that they lose $30 million worth of business every year because patrons cannot find places to park. Because of Manhattan's jammed curbs, double parking and choked streets, a dairy-route man in a modern truck delivers only 25 cases of milk daily, about 60% of what a route man with a horse and wagon could handle 25 years ago.

Parking problems often create more talk than action. In St. Louis some seven public and private groups are debating what to do, but to date have accomplished little. Dallas left the off-street parking job to the parking companies. In four years, they boosted spaces almost 50%, but they still cannot keep up with the 270,445 cars that roll into the city every day. The twin problems of parking and downtown traffic are speeding the nation's flight to the suburbs.

To save their downtown sections, some cities have created public authorities to float bonds and build off-street garages. They have also encouraged private garages and parking-lot companies, which have already spent $3.5 billion to create 2,750,000 off-street spaces. With a remarkable burst of civic energy, Chicago tackled its problem in 1952, accomplished almost overnight what many cities plan to spend decades doing. When the parking shortage in downtown Chicago began to pinch retailers, they persuaded the city to order a $50 million emergency program. Beneath a great tract of Grant Park, facing Michigan Avenue's luxury stores, the city built an underground garage with 2,359 spaces (rate: $2.40 for 24 hours). It cost $8,300,000, but business is 20% better than expected, and the garage turned a $96,291 profit for the city in its first six months. Chicago also completed five other garages downtown, six in the Englewood shopping area, plans four more (total capacity of the 16 garages: more than 8,000 cars). Said Commissioner of Streets Lloyd Johnson: "Without the parking facilities now operating or under construction, the central business area would be strangled within a few years."

Another city that has managed to avoid a massive parking headache is Los Angeles, which has more cars per capita (one for every two persons) than any other city in the world. When it banned curb-parking downtown, 42,000 off-street spaces at fair rates were provided. To head off future parking problems, Los Angeles County passed zoning laws that require nearly all new buildings and houses to include adequate off-street parking, e.g., one space for every two employees in an industrial building, one space for every ten seats in a church, one space per new house.

To solve the parking problem, public and private capital will have to work together. Ann Arbor, Mich. created an independently budgeted Parking System to borrow $1,095,000 and build five lots and two garages. From the meter coins and parking fees it takes in, Parking System is paying off the bonds, and hopes to add more new spaces to keep up with the city's growth. In many cities, department stores are winning back old customers by going into the parking business.

After Salt Lake City's biggest department store put up its own 550-car garage (TIME, Dec. 6), sales climbed 18%. Milwaukee merchants got together to set up Downtown Parking Co. Inc. In residential neighborhoods, small lots and garages can ease the problem: Architect Richard Roth, planner of a score of Manhattan's newest office buildings, estimates that a 60-car lot can be made to pay off. With coin-operated gates, automatic devices to stack cars and other new parking machines, garages can bring down handling charges and cut rates.

Most parking experts feel that cities can no longer permit real-estate men to put up new skyscrapers and huge apartments and let somebody else worry about the traffic and parking problems they bring. It looks as if the time will soon come when all big cities will have to follow Los Angeles' example and force builders to include parking facilities in new construction.

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