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The Strongest Case Yet That Excessive Parking Causes More Driving

Long after it was painfully clear that cigarettes caused cancer, big tobacco companies maintained that no such link existed, on the grounds that it’s incredibly hard for scientists to prove causation. The "no causality" stance appeared in 89 percent of lawsuits before 1997, according to one review. That fell to just 25 percent in 2003, but even then you could find an R.J. Reynolds chemist testifying that "the rigorous scientific proof of causation is not complete."

In the urban planning world, a parallel to the smoking-cancer connection is the tie between parking and driving. Cheap, excessive parking has been linked to more drive-alone commutes, worse traffic congestion, higher rents, and all the other social costs of over-reliance on cars for urban mobility. But the fact that so many U.S. cities cling to minimum parking policies suggests that officials don’t see parking as a key cause of increased driving–instead, perhaps, just a natural response to it.

Eric Jaffe

Full Story: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/01/the-strongest-case-yet-that-excessive-parking-causes-more-driving/423663/?utm_source=SFFB

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