What can you put in 93,000 parking spaces?
Anyone who’s spent much time in my neighborhood knows that one thing we have an abundance of is parking.
That parking may not be located exactly where you want it, or priced exactly how you’d like it, but nonetheless, it’s there; taking up huge masses of space that could be used for purposes other than storing cars. Uses that could actually add vibrancy to the urban environment here rather than dead walls.
According to a parking assessment released last year from Central Atlanta Progress, there are over 93,000 parking spaces in Downtown Atlanta. I wondered what else might fit in the area taken up by those spaces, and it just so happens that a couple of recent graphics make it clear.
This first one comes from the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (click it for a larger image).
And this next one comes from a page on the 9x18.net site that has a good writeup on the issue of better uses for parking. 9′ X 18′ is the basic size for a parking space (click it for a larger image).
Using these figures, here’s a list I’ve made of things that could fit inside 93,000 parking spaces:
- 15,000 2-bedroom apartments, or…
- 23,250 1-bedroom apartments, or…
- 46,500 micro apartments, or…
- 930,000 bicycle parking spaces, or…
- 279,000 3-office cubicles
This is just an exercise in math and space. I don’t expect any huge level of reuse to happen with Downtown Atlanta’s parking any time soon, and of course some level of parking is always necessary.
But I do believe, just by eyeballing the deadness of the blocks filled with parking and from the way those decks and lots sit mostly empty for many hours of the day, that some level of reuse is warranted. It would certainly liven things up to have these spaces activated with human pursuits rather than empty cars (when they even have that).
Just think of all those thousands of apartments!
Notes
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