this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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A Boring Dystopia
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Parking lots that are only close to full on Black Friday and Christmas Eve.
And that's by design. Parking minimum laws were literally written with maximum demand in mind, not typical. Like, those parking lots are going to sit half-empty for 99% of the year, and we all collectively have to pay for it every day through pricier goods in stores (parking lots and the real estate they occupy ain't free), pricier rent (it could have been housing instead), and pricier transportation (ginormous parking lots just spread everything out, meaning we're forced to become more dependent on gas-guzzling cars instead of being able to walk to the shop for free).
In my experience as an electrical engineer, this kind of thinking, 99% non-maximum and 1% maximum, is how electrical infrastructure is built too. Conductors and transformers and other equipment are sized to the historical max + a safety factor so that the electrical system will work even on the rainiest of rainy days. It has to do with reliability and resilience.
But parking lots don't need to be super reliable or resilient... Bridges and buildings definitely, but roads and lots literally just cover land. You don't have the same risk as your do with structures or the grid. Most get repaved every few years anyways.
Not to mention how with store fronts you don't even really need pavement gravel when used gets the job done and it lets rain water drain away through it and when the place goes bankrupt the lot slowly becomes a park back in my home state of Vermont there's a lot of places that have simple dirt parking lots
In my experience as an electrical engineer I size things like that and everyone fucking argues with me. I even have a document for it that basically says
"Please sign that you have been informed that what you are doing will cause a fire and you were informed of that fact by email"
And then announce that I am not proceeding until the document is signed. So far no one has taken me up on it.
Yep. And the lower density that more parking creates means our cities are an empty wasteland of endless paving.
You are my people.