Nearly every city in the United States requires new developments to build a certain number of off-street parking spaces. Such requirements are known as “parking minimums.” Parking minimums have been criticized for requiring developers to build too much parking — they are generally set to require the amount of parking that might be needed when parking is free, during periods of peak demand, and in suburban, auto-oriented environments without public transit. In any other situation, there is likely to be less demand for parking and the amount of parking built will be underutilized. As minimums are already set too high and building parking is extremely expensive, researchers have generally presumed that developers will build parking close to the parking minimums.
