Canada has way more parking than cars. Is it time for that to change?

Even if plain, boring parking lots seem to dominate city landscapes, author Henry Grabar says it's not too late to shift gears towards a less car-centric society, which could open up parking spaces to be used for other needs such as affordable housing. 

"We have spent a long time thinking about how automobiles and roads have transformed our landscape, but paid very little attention to parking. And I think that's a mistake," Grabar told The Sunday Magazine guest host Robyn Bresnahan.

"A car spends 95 per cent of its lifespan parked. So when you think about the car's actual spatial impact on the places we live, you're mostly talking about parking."

Grabar is a journalist for Slate and the author of a new book called Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World.

He says a move away from the need for parking spaces could open up more options for affordable housing, and make cities more walkable. 

But according to Grabar there is too much parking, and the planning around it hasn't been getting the attention it needs. 

Grabar says that's because parking sits at the intersection of land use and transportation. He says that often the people in charge of transportation don't think about parking and, with the exception of residential developments, architects often don't consider where to put cars until after a building is designed. 

The other reason Grabar says parking doesn't get the thought that it should:

"Parking just strikes people as sort of boring and dull. I mean, parking lots are ugly, parking garages are unloved. It's nobody's favourite thing to do and no one's favourite thing to talk about," said Grabar. 

"I've written stories about affordable housing and transportation and storm-water flooding and architecture and under [everything], it seemed that there was this big issue that hadn't been discussed, and that issue was parking. It seemed whatever the question, the answer was parking."

It may seem shocking, as you struggle to find an open space at Costco or spot outside your favourite restaurant, but Grabar says there is actually an overabundance of parking in Canada. 

According to research done by the Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research initiative at the University of Calgary in 2021, there are 3.2 to 4.4 parking spots for every vehicle in Canada. 

The study found about 40 per cent of those spaces were for residential use, 26 per cent was connected to the commercial and institutional sectors, and the rest were on-road spaces.

Grabar says this is because we've formed our society around the need for cars.