The Parking Paradox

ModeShift

America is hooked on parking. There are roughly two billion parking spaces in the United States; that’s about eight spots for every single car. All of that parking takes up a lot of space; roughly a third of the land in our cities. 

For Henry Grabar, the acclaimed author of “Paved Paradise,” our fixation is fueled by what he calls the parking trilemma: our quest for a parking space that is convenient, available and free. Yet, for Grabar, this trilemma has eroded the very communities it aims to make accessible. 

In this episode, Grabar digs into the history of parking to explain our unquenchable thirst for it, the cascading impacts of all that parking and case studies that demonstrate we can change the parking status quo.

Listen to ModeShift on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

More description

America is hooked on parking. There are roughly two billion parking spaces in the United States; that’s about eight spots for every single car. All of that parking takes up a lot of space; roughly a third of the land in our cities. 

For Henry Grabar, the acclaimed author of “Paved Paradise,” our fixation is fueled by what he calls the parking trilemma: our quest for a parking space that is convenient, available and free. Yet, for Grabar, this trilemma has eroded the very communities it aims to make accessible. 

In this episode, Grabar digs into the history of parking to explain our unquenchable thirst for it, the cascading impacts of all that parking and case studies that demonstrate we can change the parking status quo.

Listen to ModeShift on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

2026-04-08 29 min
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