Riders, Not Drivers of Change: how parking regulations can shape a city’s future.

Many major cities around the world today have been designed for cars and not for people. In Canada and the US, most built infrastructure is devoted solely to cars – roads, highways and parking, and has even led us to conceptualize the city as a car-based space. Cars do serve a role in our lives, and for some, are essential in meeting everyday needs. Designing our living spaces excessively around them, however, has resulted not just in substantial societal costs and adversity, but has also altered our perception of living spaces themselves. Continuing to devote these spaces to car infrastructure perpetuates our dependence on cars. Building parking spaces in particular, uses substantial land and resources while failing to offer viable societal returns on costs. Realizing the costs and consequences of building excess parking in Toronto, the city municipal body has recently revised its parking requirements policy, abolishing parking minimum requirements, and replacing them with parking maximums. This amendment is driven by the city’s vision for a more liveable, sustainable, transit-oriented city, that is less dependent on cars, as stated in its official plan. This research study, in the form of a Major Portfolio, explores in depth the reasons behind the implementation of this policy revision, and its implications for residents and commuters, as well as what it means for the identity of the city itself. The study investigates these questions through the perspectives and responses of stakeholders, experts, developers and planners, and the community, which are collected through interviews, and adopts a behavioral lens in its analyses of the issue. My research indicates that Toronto’s parking policy revision is a step in the right direction, but a small step, and one that is unlikely to lower housing costs to home buyers/renters. It can help developers and other stakeholders through cost savings due to less money spent on constructing unnecessary parking stalls, and it will help reduce the proportion of unused parking spaces for the future. However, it needs to be complimented with more radical changes in order to reduce car dependence, to encourage people to shift to healthier and more sustainable methods of transportation, and make housing more accessible to people.