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Comment by mateo1 | Hacker News Reader

It's not just "a bit" more expensive to build. It's very expensive and also quite inconvenient to use.

>Maybe it would be best if there were no parking mandates at all and cities let the market figure out the right amount of parking space.

That's just hilarious. You should visit just about any city in central and souther europe. All were build either before cars were a consideration or without adequate planning. The result is that driving downtown is a nightmare. Having minimal parking works ok when the population density is high and public transportation is good, but in a car-centric country like the US it just wouldn't work. And having public transportation is another thing to consider when planning a city.

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>The result is that driving downtown is a nightmare

Is.. this a bad thing? Why do you feel entitled to a great car driving experience in the densest part of downtown?

why do you feel entitled to good public transportation? If everyone in the US preferred/valued high quality public transportation, that is what we would have. Its clearly not what most people want, and honestly, I don't see that changing much in the next 20-50 years.

Huge swaths of the US population don't live in dense urban areas, and don't have access to public transportation at all.

Try living in the country or even in most suburbs without a car; nearly impossible, and it is impossibly expensive to extend public transportation to every part of the US

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

I actually live in a city in central Europe, which is why I'm baffled by US city planning. I've also lived in Tokyo for while, where there is much, much less surface parking available than in my home city. I liked that a lot actually.

You're not doing your argument any favors by comparing to European cities, which have great public transportation for the most part, and heavily discourage car use. The entire point of a downtown is to have everything accessible for humans. If it was meant for cars, downtown would look like a highway with service stations and drive-thrus.

I moved to Berlin a few years ago and aside from unplanned vacations into car-accessible destinations and heavy furniture pickup, don't miss having a car.

> Having minimal parking works ok when the population density is high and public transportation is good, but in a car-centric country like the US it just wouldn't work.

The US's design is not handed down from the Gods. It can and should change, for the livability of future generations if not the boomers who will cling to their coal-rolling machines as long as they can.

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