Video-Image: DW

Conscious of reaching climate goals and strapped for space, some cities are reconsidering how much they dedicate to parking. Austria’s capital, Vienna, is streets ahead.

Anyone who has had the displeasure of finding a parking spot in a major city knows it can take a very long time to strike gold. Los Angeles residents sacrifice more than 80 hours a year hunting for a place to leave their cars and from London to Frankfurt, the situation in other urban centers is not much better.

Though they’re individually tiny, parking spots quietly play a dominant role in shaping urban landscapes. Most US cities dedicate at least 25% of their developable land to them. Some, even more.

That land usage not only determines the way a city looks; it also means covering large swathes of urban areas in heat-absorbing asphalt, which contributes to making summers hotter and heightens the risk of flooding since it prevents drainage during storms and heavy rainfall.

Some municipal officials are now beginning to rethink parking’s priority status — and what it means for how people get around.

Vienna is putting an emphasis on making use of potential communal space – Image: Tim Dornaus/Lokale Agenda 21

Vienna is taking a firm stance

Long renowned among residents for slow-crawling traffic and infuriating parking hunts, the Austrian capital of Vienna is taking an unusual approach to solving the problem. Far from adding new lots, it is removing on-street parking.

The idea is to break up concrete, not only to cool things off in summer but to encourage alternative transit options.

With more than 350 projects focused on converting asphalt into green and public spaces, the city is removing a lot of parking, even in the central Neuer Markt. Located next to some of the biggest tourist attractions, it was once characterized by rows of parking spaces. Now the square has been pedestrianized and filled with trees and seating for locals and visitors.

Parking spots like these are becoming a thing of the past in some parts of the Austrian capital — this is how one street looked before its transformation – Image: Stadt Wien

And one of Vienna’s central arteries has been converted into a “Dutch-inspired” cycling street, where 140 parking spots have made way for 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) of bike lanes and plant life.

These more sweeping remodeling efforts have also paved the way for “neighborhood oasis” projects that enable groups of residents to petition district governments to convert individual parking spots. This makes space for community gardens, outdoor dining areas, and children’s play spaces.

And there’s been another big change: no more free parking, anywhere. In 2022 Vienna introduced a city-wide parking management system, meaning all street parking is subject to payment, and for non-residents to a two-hour limit.

Why it works in Vienna

While these shifts haven’t made parking in the center of Vienna a pleasant experience, the city has still ensured that drivers have options. It’s set up several “park and rides” for commuters — large parking garages with cheap all-day parking connected directly to mass transit, which is also affordable, well-connected and fast.

Ensuring residents can still get around is vital to winning public support for these shifts.

“We have to take people on board,” Ina Homeier, a planner at Vienna’s Department of Urban Planning and Development, told DW. “We have to ask: how do you want your neighborhood? Do you want it to be filled with cars and without any trees, or do you want something different?” she said.

Expanding paid parking zones brings in €180 million ($209 million) annually, which the city puts directly into cycling infrastructure to encourage alternative mobility. Vienna’s green urban agenda has seen residents using cars 37% less than they did in the 1990s.

And though polling indicates that more than two-thirds of the city’s residents favor reducing parking and establishing additional green spaces, she believes more people need to be won over.

This is part of the same street shown in the picture above after its transformation – Image: Stadt Wien

“There’s been very complicated politics around taking back some of the space we’ve accorded the automobile, because for people who drive — and many people have no choice but to do so — it’s considered an attack on their livelihoods and the way they get around,” said Henry Grabar, author of “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World”.

This is especially true in car-crazy America, where 92% of households own at least one car. There, drivers are an important political and social group, swaying local policies and city planning, which makes Vienna-like reform a challenge.

Getting locals involved in transforming their city is key to the success of such initiatives – Image: Tim Dornaus/Lokale Agenda 21

Other cities are trying it too

This hasn’t stopped many US cities from trying. Dallas, Texas, recently converted a sprawling downtown parking lot into a 3.7-acre public park and cities such as New York and San Francisco have experimented with making pandemic-era transformations that saw parking spots converted into on-street pop-up seating for restaurants into permanent fixtures.

Meanwhile, increasing street parking prices can both reduce demand and raise revenue. “There are lots of cities that are starting to realize the opportunity that parking offers for cities that have relatively limited budgets,” Dana Yanocha, a researcher at the Washington, DC-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, told DW.

“Streets are essentially one of the most valuable assets cities have,” she continued.

She also noted that other major US cities like San Jose in California and Austin in Texas are beginning to eliminate municipal zoning requirements that demand all new construction include a minimum number of parking lots. This frees up developers to dedicate more space to housing or other amenities and also helps to shift expectations around urban car use.

But ultimately, Homeier says changing mindsets is all about ensuring choice. “You cannot reduce anything without offering a good alternative. That’s true in general, but especially for cars, which many people feel they have a right to have. You need to offer a cheap and better alternative.”

Related:

15-minute cities: What are they and how do they work?

City planners say we have to rethink the way we build urban areas to make them more sustainable, healthy and just. The so-called 15-minute city is one idea. But are they viable?

This is what districts could look like in a 15-mins city in the future – Image: Jan Kamensky

As recently as a two decades ago, more people lived in the countryside than in urban areas. But that has since changed. Around 56% of the global population are now at home in cities, and the number continues to rise. According to the United Nations, two thirds of the roughly 10 billion people that will inhabit planet Earth by the year 2050 will live in built-up areas.

This consistent city spread has revealed serious cracks in their planning, shedding light on issues such as social injustice and exclusion, inadequate public transportation networks and smog-related health issues. One idea that has been gaining traction recently as a way towards more sustainable, livable and healthy futures are 15 minutes cities.

The idea behind the concept is to build cities in such a way that most daily necessities and services are located within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. Carlos Moreno, urbanist and professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris first came up with the idea in 2016. He wanted everyone to have easy access to shops, schools, doctors, the gym, parks, restaurants and cultural institutions.

Many people who live in cities today can only dream of that, and instead have to deal with traffic jams or poor public transportation to get where they want to go.

Human-centered design

Benjamin Büttner, mobility expert at the Technical University Munich says that in order to create more sustainable cities, things like green spaces, places to do sport, cinemas and shops need to be moved to where people live, not vice versa.

And that doesn’t mean they have to be demolished and rebuilt, but that already existing public space needs to be rearranged.

The 15-minute city also offers a mobility concept: fewer cars and more space for cyclists and pedestrians, safe paths for children, people with disabilities or the elderly and places for social interaction.

“Cars are a problem, at least in urban centers. They take up too much space and they can hamper active mobility,” Büttner said.

The romantic fog is actually toxic smog. Paris wants to tackle the problem with more bike lanes and a new city planning concept – Image: Vincent Isore/IP3press/IMAGO

From Paris to Shanghai: more and more cities are reconstructing

There are already 16 cities worldwide that have implemented the 15-minute city concept or similar ideas, or are working on doing so. The approaches vary, with some cities looking to implement 20-minute concepts, others 10-minute ones, and yet others focused on either individual urban districts or set on recreating the entire city.

Among the pioneers is the French capital. After Carlos Moreno introduced his concept in 2016, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, presented it in her reelection campaign and began implementing it during the pandemic.

The core of the Paris concept sees schools as “capitals,” making them the center of each neighborhood. Schoolyards are being refurbished into parks to make them accessible for other activities after classes and at the weekend.

Paris also wants to repurpose half of its 140,000 car parking spaces, turning them into green areas, playgrounds, neighborhood meetups or bike parking spots. Streets right across Paris are due to be bike-friendly by 2026.

In 2016, Shanghai announced plans to introduce what it calls “15-minute community life circles,” a plan that would ensure all day-to-day activities are within 15-minutes walking distance. Another 50 Chinese cities are looking to implement the concept.

An initiative in the UK is also aimed at achieving a better quality of life for city dwellers. As part of its countrywide renaturalization program, the British government announced plans to make it possible for everyone to reach green areas or open water within a 15-minute walk from their home.

Medellin in Colombia has become famous for its green corridors and has even won prizes for it – Image: Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images

The ‘Superilles’ or super districts of Barcelona

The Spanish city of Barcelona has been experimenting with so-called Superilles or super districts. The concept takes several housing blocks and puts them into a super block. Only residents or delivery services have access with cars and the maximum speed limit is 10 kilometers (6 miles) an hour.

Many streets are blocked for cars and are instead being used in different ways. Former parking lots have been given over to trees, vegetables and flowers, and are now places where children can play and people can while away their time on benches in the shade.

“Tactical urbanism” is what Büttner calls this approach. The concept is being tested for two to six months “in order to see whether the situation has gotten better or worse,” he says. “In that case you can still say ‘let’s go back to the way things were before.’ But if it’s got better then you can make it a lasting measure.”

Currently, 60% of public space in Barcelona and 85% of streets are used for traffic. More than half the city’s residents are faced with noise and dangerous air pollution, which is considerably higher than World Health Organization limits. The new districts should reduce motorized traffic by 21%.

In Barcelona the parents’ initiative “Bicibus” (“bike bus”) means children can bike to school along a car-free road – Image: Nacho Doce/REUTERS

Will less traffic harm businesses?

Studies show that more bike and pedestrian traffic in cities saves money, as less is spent in the road maintenance and health sectors.

The positive effects of cycling are being estimated at more than €90 billion ($96 billion) in the EU alone. By comparison, mobilized traffic causes more than €800 billion in costs for health, environment and infrastructure every year.

Many shop owners are concerned that the 15-minute city idea will cause a collapse in sales since customers can no longer reach them by car. But in the western US city of Portland, the 20% drop in car traffic following the introduction of a 20-minute city concept, also led to an additional $1.2 billion (€1.14 billion) staying in the local economy.

15-mins city concept different for every place

In order for as many people as possible to benefit from changing cities, and to avoid any new imbalance and gentrification, experts highlight the need to roll out the concept across different districts and ensure those taking part have a good social mix. That also requires rethinking regulations and traditional planning categories, such as city centers, housing districts, suburbs and commercial areas which have led to inequality and exclusion in cities worldwide.

According to Büttner, political will and courage of politicians and administrations are vital, as well as the dialogue with citizens and all parties involved. Because there isn’t a set solution for all cities.

Every place and every social, economic and ecological structure of a city is different, Büttner says. So deciding which measures are best, depends on the context.

DW.com/NAN 3-1-26

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