Siemiatycki: ‘Parking-lite’ trend shows a shift in public thinking

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Professor Matti Siemiatycki

Toronto developers are reducing the number of parking spaces in new condominiums, and existing parking lots are being redeveloped as housing according to a recent article the National Post.

The City of Toronto’s Michael Hain, Manager of Transportation Planning Policy and Analysis, points to a trend to fewer parking spaces. He reports “a significant number of applications to get site-specific amendments to have less parking than what the zoning bylaw requires.”

UTTRI associated faculty Professor Matti Siemiatycki says that public acceptance of less parking is tied to the increasing popularity of “complete communities” encouraging active transportation.

Matti Siemiatycki, a professor in the University of Toronto’s department of Geography and Planning, believes people will continue to replace parking “with their wallets and with their feet. They’re buying into buildings that have less parking, and not taking the option of buying a parking spot. The fact that developers are continuing to ask for reduced parking spaces, and that regulations are changing, are clear signs that there has been a shift in public thinking.” And, in short, toward less car use.

While the drastic drop in transit usage during the pandemic is challenging this shift, Siemiatycki says COVID-19 has “refocused attention on building complete communities where people can walk and cycle to the services they need in their daily lives, because those are the communities that are most resilient to shocks to the system.”

Link to full article “Urban living: Endangered spaces,” National Post, December 3, 2020.