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Comment by sandoooo | Hacker News Reader

Why is there no multilevel parking? All that space can't be cheap. Is there zoning laws against it?

>All that space can't be cheap.

It is, and it's why dense housing can't compete. Cars are cheap, fuel is cheap, land is cheap. In the short term, other costs, such as harm to walkability, lack of community, pollution, etc are not quantifiable or too far out in the long term to make it a viable business proposition to go with density.

In many parts of Florida, land is cheap.

I've often wondered that, why parking structures aren't considered more as a medium term solution to increasing density while not having to revolutionize public transit. Probably a combination of the cost to build and resistance to having one next to buildings because they're usually pretty ugly if I had to guess.

Because roads for all those cars take space as well. In a low density city it isn't a big deal (other than the expense of building all the roads), but as you move up the density levels your roads start to get full. Parking structures are common, and a useful part even the densest cities. They don't solve all the problems though and so are not a solution or even a mitigation.

Agreed - often in London the parking is underground, under the building where people live, rather than huge swathes of car park etc.

It wont work for high-rise buildings of course, but for slightly-less-central blocks that are say 4 to 6 floors, each apartment gets a parking space.

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