Paul (parking reform) Barter
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paulbarter.bsky.social
Paul (parking reform) Barter
@paulbarter.bsky.social
7.7K followers 1.8K following 210 posts
Yes, a parking-policy book club IS my idea of fun. You got a problem with that?

An 🇦🇺ian in 🇸🇬 (since 2000) but a 🌏 focus.

Join Parking Reform Network!

https://www.reinventingparking.org/
Posts Replies Media Videos
paulbarter.bsky.social
FWIW, I see that the version in his newsletter DOES include a link to your video.
Image shows an excerpt from the Transport Leader newsletter of 29 Sept 2025 with the top part of an item on "The Waterloo Playbook: How to Build Affordable Light Rail". The text includes a link to Oh the Urbanity's youtube video on this topic.
September 29, 2025 at 11:39 PM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Encouraging new parking policy, strategy and action plan from Chennai, India. Hat tip Aswathy Dilip of ITDP @itdp-hq.bsky.social India.

Looks like an excellent model for other middle-income cities around the world!

Downloadable via www.linkedin.com/posts/aswath...
The image shows the cover of the new "Parking Policy, Strategy and Action Plan for the Chennai Metropolitan Area" published January 2025 by Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA).
March 24, 2025 at 6:22 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Today's @parkingreform.org webinar with Wes Marshall @wesmars.bsky.social has been fantastic. He talked about his book "Killed by a Traffic Engineer" and brilliantly and surprisingly revealed connections with parking. I also enjoyed hearing about the influence of Prof Donald Shoup on his work.
Poster for the Parking Reform Network and Wes Marshall webinar "Killed by a Traffic Engineer: What's parking got to do with it?". Shows a picture of Wes Marshall and the cover of his book, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer".
September 4, 2024 at 12:34 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
I appealed to @parkingreform.org members for their parking reform stories. The latest Reinventing Parking was the result.

It is a series of engaging personal stories from parking reformers in their own words and with their own voices.

Listen or read via www.reinventingparking.org/2024/05/park...
An image of the screen showing Voice Message #10 audio by Donald Shoup on SpeakPipe (a service which allows sending voice messages)
May 30, 2024 at 9:05 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Yes, parking mandates inhibit housing supply!

Site can cost-effectively fit 36 parking spaces. So old 1:1 parking mandates meant 36 homes.

Open-choice parking enables 84 homes with the 36 spaces!

Via this excellent Catie Gould article on Bellingham, WA, USA

www.sightline.org/2024/05/01/b...
A graph showing that after repealing parking mandates, more than twice as many homes (84 verus 36) will be built on a site (and the same number of parking spaces as before - since the site can only fit 36 in a cost-effective way). Under a proposal for lowered parking requirements 59 homes would have been possible.
May 17, 2024 at 4:21 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Thanks @humantransit.bsky.social and @norton.bsky.social for the distinction between "data-driven" and "data-guided".

I confess to using data-driven or data-based when talking about rationing on-street #parking. But data-guided would be better.

🧵

cc @parkingreform.org
Post on X by Jarrett Walker @humantransit: "The right thing to do is always the result of a combination of facts and goals. The term "data-driven" is designed to make you unconsciously accept the goals of the people who bring you the facts."
May 12, 2024 at 1:47 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
I didn't realize that Instagram account Car Free America used @alfredtwu.bsky.social's drawing (p.155) for Henry Grabar's "Paved Paradise" book without credit and "enhanced" it with AI. Ugh.
Sketch by Alfred Twu on page 155 of Henry Grabar's Paved Paradise book: There are four images of a commercial part of a city. Image 1: No parking required (showing a shop that covers the whole lot on a lively street. Image 2: One space per 500 sq ft (showing stores with a small parking lot). Image 3: One space per 250 sq ft (showing stores with more than half the land devoted to parking). Image 4: One space per 100 sq ft (showing stores with much more than half the land devoted to parking and no-one on foot).
March 31, 2024 at 2:02 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Parking mandates ruin cities as this image shows.

But "no parking required" is better EVEN if there is lots of nearby parking not shown in the image.

That parking will be open-to-the-public parking, not private customer-only. It makes a HUGE difference.
www.reinventingparking.org/search?q=wal...
Image from car_free_america tiktok account. There are four images of a commercial part of a city. Image 1: No parking required (showing a shop that covers the whole lot on a lively street. Image 2: One space per 500 sq ft (showing stores with a small parking lot). Image 3: One space per 250 sq ft (showing stores with more than half the land devoted to parking). Image 4: One space per 100 sq ft (showing stores with much more than half the land devoted to parking and no-one on foot).
March 30, 2024 at 12:08 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Reinventing Parking recently:
*Minimums to maximums in the UK
*Austin did it. Your city can too
*Six Surprising Parking Reform Ideas
*Most buildings run their parking badly. Let's fix that
*Parking reform around the world: new report from ITDP
*We Gamified Parking Reform
*Is parking reform anti-car?
Home page of Reinventing Parking www.reinventingparking.org showing the most recent few posts and episodes.
March 21, 2024 at 2:48 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
The UK shifted in 2001 from #parking mandates to parking maximums nationwide.

Although not an unqualified success, there ARE great lessons for @parkingreform.org and #parkingreform everywhere.

www.reinventingparking.org/2024/03/less...
From parking minimums to parking maximums
March 20, 2024 at 1:42 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
The new 1km squares map view in "How dense is your city?" is interesting.
Map view of Jakarta via "How dense is your city?" website using the 1km squares option.
March 18, 2024 at 12:13 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Melbourne housing and bike activist, Jonathan Nolan, has created a useful website "How Dense is Your City?" citydensity.com Now improved and early glitches fixed. #urbanism
Graph of density (population weighted) within 30km of the centres of Jakarta, New York City, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai and Sydney.
March 17, 2024 at 11:51 PM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Are you a Parking Reform Network @parkingreform.org member? Thinking of joining?

Heads up that the 28 March online Orientation session is timed for time zones ranging from central Europe/Middle East/Africa to eastern Asia and Australia and everywhere in between.
Screenshot of the registration page for the Parking Reform Network Member Orientation session for 28 March.
March 9, 2024 at 3:07 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Parking reformers are against mandates but have mixed feelings about parking maximums.

For a less rigid way to dampen parking oversupply, cities can make off-street parking count as floor area. 

Singapore and São Paulo are precedents.
www.reinventingparking.org/2024/02/coun...
@parkingreform.org
Image of a diagram in Portuguese explaining Sao Paulo's rules about when parking does or does not count as floor area for planning purposes. Below a certain threshold provision level, parking does not count towards the allowed Floor Area Ratio under the zoning rules. But parking beyond the threshold DOES count.
February 8, 2024 at 11:37 PM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Idea Six in the latest Reinventing Parking podcast episode:

Japan-style parking mandates (if you insist on mandating parking).
Image of a dense Tokyo neighborhood, with text "Abolish parking minimums! But failing that, copy Japan, where parking minimums are low AND exempt small and medium buildings. This enables sensitive infill development.
February 2, 2024 at 2:35 PM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Shreya in action. A great point here.
Parking is a commodity, not a right. One person says: "I bought a car but the government hasn't given me a free place to park it!" Another says: "I bought an air conditioner, but the government hasn't given me a free house in which to put it!"
December 20, 2023 at 2:08 PM
paulbarter.bsky.social
An interesting review from New Zealand of Henry Grabar's "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World"
www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2023/10/26/b...
Screenshot of the header of the book review at the Greater Auckland website. Guest post by George Weeks.
October 26, 2023 at 1:00 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Join @parkingreform.org for an email-writing campaign with partners at Climate Changemakers.

Action Playbook: Abolish Parking Mandates.

RSVP with the links below Oct 24: lu.ma/u4vp8pl6 Oct 31: lu.ma/gofp3lof
Join for an hour of action 24 Oct and 31 Oct. Action Playbook: Abolish Parking Mandates. Make an impact by writing to your elected representatives. Your voice matters. Let's make some noise! RSVP via the links.
October 23, 2023 at 8:47 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Players of the parking reform game find out for themselves that parking fees and enforcement are powerful.
October 5, 2023 at 4:04 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Is Parking Reform "Anti-Car"?

Mostly it DOESN'T directly challenge car dominance. Only indirectly, by opening doors for other changes that CAN prevent or end car dependence.

The latest episode of Reinventing Parking investigates.

www.reinventingparking.org/2023/08/is-p...

@parkingreform.org
Screenshot of the top part of the article at https://www.reinventingparking.org/2023/08/is-parking-reform-anti-car.html "Is parking reform anti car? ..."
August 29, 2023 at 1:29 AM
paulbarter.bsky.social
Last month's Reinventing Parking episode looks at an unlikely viral hit: the Parking Lot Maps from @parkingreform.org
screen shot of part of the relevant post at Reinventing Parking: Powerful Parking Maps showing the parking lot map of Columbus, Ohio
August 13, 2023 at 6:24 AM