Los Angeles is the phantasmal home of American car civilization . The dealings is fabled , and the locals ’ preference for talking about their commutes has been thebutt of plenty of jokes . But in a urban center where seemingly everyone motor , just how much parking is needed for all those gondola ?
concord to a2015 studypublished in theJournal of the American Planning Association , “ 14 percent of incorporated kingdom in Los Angeles County is commit to parking . ” The composition ’s writer say that this amounts to about 200 straight international mile of parking infrastructure ( garages , on - street parking , residential spaces , etc . ) . For compare , streets and freeway take up less space — the 405 , Sunset Boulevard , and all of Los Angeles ’s other famous roadways add up to about 140 square geographical mile of Los Angeles County ’s land .
The study ’s writer estimated that " there were 18.6 million parking spaces in L.A. County in 2010 , which include 5.5 million residential off - street , 9.6 million nonresidential off - street , and 3.6 million on - street spaces . "
The animated GIF below isincluded in the study , which is title “ Parking Infrastructure : A Constraint on or Opportunity for Urban Redevelopment ? ” It read the prodigious growth of Los Angeles ’s parking density over metre . expect at those spaces sprout :
Mikhail Chestera , Andrew Frasera , Juan Matuteb , Carolyn Flowera , and Ram Pendyalac // gif viaTransportation LCA
AsCurbed Los Angeles’sJeff Wattenhofer indicate , “ The sensing that there will always be available parking leads drivers to neglect public transfer options , contributing to traffic , as well as to the growth in pollution because of circle the closure in lookup of a spot . ” The study come to a interchangeable conclusion , and the authors submit that “ [ urban center ] planners should encourage the spiritual rebirth of live parking facility to alternative habit , ” as all that parking provide commuters with plenty of incentive to keep driving .
Unmentioned in the discipline , specifically ? Valet parking , which , as anyone who has ensure 1995’sCluelesscan say you , is everywhere in Los Angeles .
