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Comment by forrestthewoods | Hacker News Reader

No way in hell is Seattle 33% paved vehicle surface. Not even remotely possible. City blocks account for more than 66% of surface area in the city core. And there aren't sprawling parking lots everywhere.

You're gonna have to provide a citation for this one.

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"About 27 percent of all land in Seattle is public right-of-way. SDOT manages the land through a permitting process, said Jennifer Wieland, an SDOT program manager." [1](http://realchangenews.org/2013/05/01/parking-spaces-could-be...)

I would assume that includes sidewalks?

Yes. Paved doesn't necessarily mean that it's vehicle-accessible.

Does 'public right-of-way' include green parks? Spaces such as sculpture park, volunteer park, botanical garden, discovery park, and many more?

No, those aren't considered part of the ROW by any accounting I'm familiar with.

ROWs usually extend far beyond the edge of the road.

You'd be surprised how far into your yard the ROW for your street extends.

Thank you! Not the stat I remember, but sounds like it is in line. As others have pointed out, the ROW includes sidewalks, and the planting strip used to protect sidewalks from vehicles. If I add to this all the off-street parking, then 33% sounds pretty darned plausible / in-line with this stat. Aside, Jennifer Wieland is one of the most awesome public servants I've ever met.

My neighborhood has possibly one of the more generous plantable right-of-ways in the city; the sum of plantable ROW is wider than the paved surface. But most places it seems to be 4-6 feet plantable, and denser areas completely paved.

27% ROW, minus the parts for pedestrians and the parts designed to protect pedestrians from cars, plus all the off-street parking (including driveways)? 33% sounds pretty darned plausible to me.

But you're right, this is one of those academic stats I should be able to cite properly. Since I can't find it (I swear it was on Seattle Public Utilities website once upon a time), perhaps this will be an afternoon task to validate. Should be doable by carving up the city into grid cells of some appropriate unit and then using orthophotos to aid blocking out car-accessible hardscape in a random sampling of grid cells.

Contact me if you do! Check my profile. Would love to see the result.

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