Liveliest streets have least parking
An urbanist’s recent study shows that it’s the commercial streets with the least parking spots that have the fewest empty storefronts and thus the liveliest mercantile life. An interesting graph is included.
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Kate
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Ian 09:13 on 2020-02-13 Permalink
Correlation doesn’t equal causation…
I don’t think that the goal of a neighbourhood should be to make it convenient for people to park there above all else and I definitely disagree with business owners that kvetch endlessly about how people from the burbs don’t go to their business areas because there isn’t any parking…
But I’m getting a little tired of these studies being trotted out that are obviously tainted by confirmation bias.
Hm let’s think why else business might do better in le Quartier Latin than Ste Kitty…
Maybe smaller streets with less room for parking are already more of a neighbourhood, with more local shoppers. Maybe they’re also adjacent to residential neighbourhoods, so that their clientele tends to walk more. Maybe rent tends to be lower on these smaller streets so more businesses stay open. Maybe more diverse business areas with more small businesses do better than business areas on large commercial streets in times of downturn as their business models tend to be more flexible and not as dependent on constant high volume sales.
Hmm so many maybes…. maybe parking is only one small factor and is actually an emergent property and not a cause.
Kate 13:31 on 2020-02-13 Permalink
I don’t think the case is correlation-causation, mostly that the numbers shown are entirely opposite to the usual claim that the way to revive commercial streets is to offer more parking. As you suggest, there are a lot of other factors in the equation.
Ian 13:36 on 2020-02-13 Permalink
When conducting a study, it is easy to find an answer you are actively seeking to be true.
Matthew 14:25 on 2020-02-13 Permalink
Obviously then there’s no point in studying anything ever, and should just base all planning decisions on grudges and hunches and anecdotes.
Kevin 14:39 on 2020-02-13 Permalink
Looking at the chart it seems about half of the areas he analyzed do not show the correlation that is referred to.
The smallest number of parking spaces has the highest vacancy rate. The second-lowest parking is ranked #7 out of 16 for vacancy.
It seems like a very selective interpretation of data