The graph of cities ending parking mandates across the board shows a dramatic acceleration since 2020—higher even in the first quarter of 2023 than in all of 2022. Moreover, a growing number of states are addressing the issue, especially on the West Coast. California and Oregon adopted statewide reform in the second half of 2022, and a handful other states are considering similar legislation—some in other parts of the US. The reforms in California and Oregon are tied to metrics such as distance to frequent transit. California’s law, AB 2097, effectively ends minimum parking requirements throughout much of the largest metropolitan regions. The rules went into effect January 1 in both states. We are in the early stages of a change that will enable types of development that have been scarce for a long time, Gould says.

Parking reform was exclusively a local issue until recently, but it has become linked to larger issues that are of interest to state legislators, according to Tony Jordan, president of the Parking Reform Network. “It’s not just housing, but also climate. And people are more aware of the impacts of automobile centric development in general, which is providing energy to the issue. These issues are percolating up to the statewide offices.”

Berkeley, California, is one example where downtown parking was priced using this method, which has made finding a parking space much easier, and also encouraged people to park in underutilized parking garages. A surprising amount of traffic downtown consists of people circling for parking spaces. In Berkeley, the variable-price for parking has reduced vehicle miles traveled downtown by 693,000 miles a year, according to one analysis, Siegman reports (that equals 238 trips from New York City to San Francisco). A similar program in San Francisco has increased urban retail sales as measured in sales tax revenues, he says. “If businesses are afraid of making too much money, don’t do demand-based pricing,” Siegman says.

Nor have developers simply stopped building parking, she says. Most new buildings in Buffalo (83 percent) have parking, while 53 percent have built as much as the former requirements called for. However, many mixed-use projects have built less parking and benefited greatly from the reforms.

Local officials trying to encourage more housing supply are increasingly seeing parking policy as a means toward that goal—with little cost and substantial benefit. “Cities that are in the middle of long-term comprehensive plans are realizing that they are behind the curve now, and are just going for full repeal,” Jordan says. He adds that state-level reforms create political cover for municipalities that want to enact reforms. Additionally, a growing number of housing advocates are organizing around the parking issue, he says.