Abstract
Suburban parking requirements have largely unrecognized effects on travel behavior, development density, development cost, and urban design. Case studies of suburban Southern California office buildings reveal that zoning codes cause parking to be oversupplied, and that automobile commuters are shielded from the economic cost of parking. These circumstances increase automobile commuting, lower building density and land value, and create automobile-oriented urban design. Taken together, such site effects contribute to the automobile-oriented, low density character of suburban areas. Suburban parking requirements thus work at cross-purposes with efforts to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

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