The parking policy and smart growth disconnect : obstacles to establishing and implementing smart growth parking policy

Urban areas are plagued by congestion, economic inequality, and inefficient land use that result from highway and single family housing subsidies, segregated land uses, and many other government policies established over the last 80 years. Parking is one part of the complex and problematic system of traditional urban development that can benefit from a Smart Growth approach to urban livability. Parking is increasingly understood to be an underlying factor in traffic generation that leads to increasing vehicle miles traveled, congestion, and several other nuisances that arise from a growing number of vehicles on the road. Furthermore, parking increases the cost of living in urban areas where parking demand is high and supply is tight. Traditional growth patterns that encourage low density development with minimum free parking requirements exacerbate problems caused by parking. Smart Growth development counters traditional growth by offering mixed use development, maximum parking requirements, context sensitive design and focusing on increasing pedestrian and transit trips. After establishing the advantages of Smart Growth over traditional development for Boston, this thesis asks: why are the cities of Boston, Cambridge and Quincy not implementing Smart Growth when it could be better for everyone? Four case studies from the Boston Metropolitan Area (North Station, Ruggles, Quincy Center, and Alewife) will help identify the pros, cons, and constraints for shifting paradigms from traditional to Smart Growth policies.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Richardson, Heather Eileen Seyfang

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Frederick P. Salvucci.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33042

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33042