They forgot to even the odds and use the powerwinch to trigger a controlled explosion
Parking structures are insanely expensive. Like, each parking spot in a parking structure costs like 30X what it costs to build a surface parking spot. It’s a crapload of concrete, and with climate change, concrete ain’t getting cheaper (concrete is extremely carbon-intensive, it releases CO2 intrinsically, not just from power-generation).
edit, since I’m getting downvotes and I assume this post is being read as an endorsement of city-destroying surface parking: The correct solution is just to not do parking at all except for extreme needs and focus on human-scale transportation.
Parking in general is expensive, along with all of the rest of car infrastructure.
Yes, but concrete parking structures are an order of magnitude moreso. Assuming $50k per parking spot and a 25-year mortgage, each spot will incur $328.58 in monthly mortgage costs. Assuming full occupancy every workday and zero on weekends (21 workdays per month) that means the daily parking fee should be $16 just to break even. This is a thumbnail sketch of course, but it shows the kind of costs we’re talking about.
Because if they did, it would be quicker to walk straight to the destination than to and from the parking spaces.
Car infrastructure generally ends up justifying itself.
The real reason? Bad, old parking regulations: https://youtu.be/OUNXFHpUhu8?si=sv3Rdh15Q0k5UHKU
No really. It’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever learned about my country.
That talks about parking minimums. It doesn’t discuss surface lots vs parking structures, which is what the post is talking about.
(We call them parkades in Canada, it’s a good name which y’all should use.)
The parking minimums lead to big lots. And not just outside of downtown areas. Structures are more expensive to build per parking space, unless land value is crazy high. So when a developer is required to build a certain number of spots, they’ll buy the land they need to build the lot with the least amount spent upfront and on maintenance.
There’s a huge amount of parking garages here, but many of them are also disguised to not be super obvious. There is so much parking, and it’s never enough for the cars.
It’s also going to depend a bit on the city. More suburby sprawling places will probably not build as many parking garages.
