Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture

Center Books

by John A. Jakle, Keith A. Sculle

When the automobile was first introduced, few Americans predicted its fundamental impact, not only on how people would travel, but on the American landscape itself. Instead of reducing the amount of wheeled transport on public roads, the advent of mass-produced cars caused congestion, at the curb and in the right-of-way, from small midwestern farm towns to New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Lots of Parking examines a neglected aspect of this rise of the automobile: the impact on America not of cars in motion but of cars at rest. While most studies have tended to focus on highway construction and engineering improvements to accommodate increasing flow and the desire for speed, John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle examine a fundamental feature of the urban, and suburban, scene―the parking lot. Their lively and exhaustive exploration traces the history of parking from the curbside to the rise of public and commercial parking lots and garages and the concomitant demolition of the old pedestrian-oriented urban infrastructure. In an accessible style enhanced by a range of interesting and unusual illustrations, Jakle and Sculle discuss the role of parking in downtown revitalization efforts and, by contrast, its role in the promotion of outlying suburban shopping districts and its incorporation into our neighborhoods and residences. Like Jakle and Sculle's earlier works on car culture, Lots of Parking will delight and fascinate professional planners, landscape designers, geographers, environmental historians, and interested citizens alike. Published in association with the Center for American Places

Genres: Transport, Nonfiction

293 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[JennyB · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a history of parking, and let's be honest here: it's kind of a tough slog even if it's the sort of thing you're interested in. Which I am, to an extent, but apparently not enough to make it through to the end of this. In the 3/4 I did read, I learned some interesting facts about how and why we came to ruin vast swathes of our cities to accommodate cars. The maps showing the encroaching expanses parking occupied in cities like Detroit and Indianapolis are actually fascinating. However, of far greater interest to me is how to fix the damage that auto hath wrought, and this may well be there at the end of the book, but I admit I did not stick around to find out.

[Frank Stein · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was the only book I could find on parking lot history, so I was willing to give a little leeway, but these guys didn't even phone it in...they texted it in while they were drinking and playing trivial pursuit.

Some parts are interesting, the attempts by downtown businesses to organize parking associations, the battle over municipal parking garages in the fifties, but the authors' habit of lifting whole paragraphs straight from companies' websites is jaw-droppingly lazy.

[Tom Rudig · Rating 3 out of 5]

There aren't a lot of books on parking out there, but I'm really enjoying this one. Call me a parking geek (being in the business), but who know you could find such history on the parking industry all in on place? Fascinating, and really gives you a different perspective when you see the evolution of lots and garages and their place in the big TDM picture.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a textbook, despite being largely original primary source research. Good for someone who doesn't know anything about parking history or is looking to get some particular fact. Not fun or readable otherwise.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful take on transportation patterns, perhaps the easiest aspect of transportation patterns to understand and hardest to influence!