Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

by Henry Grabar

Americans don’t like to walk. Victor Gruen’s Fort Worth plan set the limit an American driver would walk at two and a half minutes. In 1966, worried planners in Atlanta recorded average walking distance from a parking spot in peer cities: 501 feet in Nashville, 555 feet in Dallas, 478 feet in New Orleans. In other words, the average walking distance from parking spot to destination—the expectation of a walk downtown—was less than two city blocks. The implication was that lots and garages would be needed on every other block. Ironically, the proliferation of parking facilities was not helping this metric; studies have since demonstrated that pedestrians overestimate walking times when they find themselves exposed to a parking crater. A walk down a leafy street of houses and shops isn’t so bad. A walk past six parking garages to run a single errand is less appealing.