Erin WhalenAug 25, 2023

A newly released collection of maps show how much land in US cities is used as parking lots.

According to The Parking Reform Network, Wichita KS is 35% parking lot while Las Vegas, NV is 32% and San Bernadino, CA is a brain-melting 49% parking lot.

Imagine the possibilities if people decided to take back most of that land from empty parked cars and use it for housing and green space instead? 🌳 🚶‍♀️ 🚴 👨‍👩‍👦 🌲

https://thehill.com/changing-america/resilience/smart-cities/4162455-paved-paradise-maps-show-how-much-of-us-cities-are-parking-lots/

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#urbanism #sustainability #green #cities #environment

Paved paradise: Maps show how much of US cities are parking lots

Nearly one-third of downtown Salt Lake City is dedicated solely to car parking, according to data released by a nonprofit last week. And Salt Lake is far from alone. In Wichita, it’s 35%. In Las Vegas, it’s 32%. In San Bernardino, it’s even worse: 49% of the central city is composed of parking.

The Hill
Show threadRihards OlupsAug 26, 2023
@erinwhalen Uses #OpenStreetMap, like it should. Article doesn’t mention it, though.
Show threadmorganAug 26, 2023

@richlv @erinwhalen Wow, that's _very_ relevant, since there are likely some amount of unmapped parking lots, so these percentages are a _minimum_.

[Edit: they in fact addressed that. I should've read the sources before blathering here.]

Show threadRihards Olups

@mw @erinwhalen
I seem to recall them going over imagery and mapping any unmapped lots in those areas, unless I'm mixing up projects/activists.

Maybe this project only uses OSM basemap, as https://parkingreform.org/resources/parking-lot-map/ doesn't mention OSM beyond the copyright attribution.

Parking Lot Map - Parking Reform Network

Explore how much land cities dedicate to parking in over 100 major cities with our Parking Lot Map. Click the drop-down in the upper-left corner to select a city, then use the pop-up information card…

Parking Reform Network
Aug 26, 2023 at 2:04pmWeb
Show threadmorganAug 26, 2023

@richlv @erinwhalen ha! I just came back to link to that page.

It sounds like they started with OSM, but then tried to get more complete data by tracing Google maps imagery. Which is kind of a shame, since i'm assuming that means they aren't contributing back to OSM.

Show threadRihards OlupsAug 26, 2023

@mw @erinwhalen
Yeah, and perhaps a bit silly even, as they don't benefit from work others put in OSM, and have to re-trace any changes on their own. That gets expensive very fast...

Also, is that a violation of Google Maps TOS?

Show threadmorganAug 26, 2023
@richlv @erinwhalen shhh!
Show threadmorganAug 26, 2023
@richlv @erinwhalen I mean, in terms of copyright, it's clearly fair use. But that would probably be a sticking point for contributing it back to OSM.
Show threadErin WhalenAug 26, 2023
@mw @richlv - Thanks for sharing your input! I wasn't familiar with Open Street Map and am happy to know it exists. #OpenSourceEverything
Show threadRihards OlupsAug 26, 2023

@erinwhalen @mw
You might have used OSM data even if you had not heard of the project yet :)
That data is used by Strava, Facebook, Komoot, Pokemon Go, Geocaching, Bolt, Wolt, even Garmin GPS devices come with OSM out of the box.

Some other prominent users are listed in https://welcome.openstreetmap.org/about-osm-community/consumers/ and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Major_OpenStreetMap_consumers , but there are many, many more.

Who uses OpenStreetMap? | OpenStreetMap