Minneapolis Eliminates Parking Spots to Deter Driving

The parking shortage in Minneapolis is a lot like the Twin Cities traffic congestion crisis American Experiment highlighted this summer. It’s self-inflicted by politicians, urban planners and environmentalists determined to dramatically alter our lifestyle, especially when it comes to cars.

Turns out Minneapolis drivers have lost 2,400 private parking spots in ramps and lots overall in just the last three years. And Minneapolis officials don’t deny it to the Star Tribune.

City officials have been holding back downtown parking construction for years. Lately they have doubled down, investing in bicycle lanes and approving new apartment buildings with few parking spaces that encourage people to find ways besides cars to get around.

“It’s gotten a lot worse,” said Casey Finne, who lives in a 26-unit building with just five parking spaces in fast-growing Uptown. “We’re kind of worried.”

It’s all about making life for residents and visitors in cars so difficult they turn to alternative modes of getting around, particularly bikes and walking. Some Minneapolis businesses already face chronic parking shortages for customers.

“It isn’t just an issue of getting people out of cars,” said Donald Shoup, an urban planning professor who studies parking at the University of California, Los Angeles. “I think it’s getting better cities, and more affordable cities, and more walkable cities with air that’s safe to breathe.”

As parking spaces dwindle, the cost continues to escalate for daily and monthly parking places. But cars aren’t going to go away, no matter how hard city leaders make it.

Joe Tamburino, chair of the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association, said he hears frequent complaints about parking. Whoever is elected mayor in November will need to address the problem, he said, especially as high-density development continues.

“There’s a whole contingent out there politically, they think Minneapolis is going to become a place without cars. And that’s a pipe dream,” he said. “People will always need cars. It’s just the way it is.”

But not in the minds of Minneapolis city planners.

Amid the growing pains, city officials say they’re hopeful that parking will eventually become less of a necessity.

Matt Brown, president of the Minneapolis Planning Commission, said changes to parking policies are partly a recognition that city-dwellers are less likely to own cars than they were decades ago. Already, ride- and car-sharing services are changing how people get around and reducing the need for parking.

“In the longer term, obviously, we’re going to see more people using transit, using bicycles or simply just living within walking distance of where they need to go,” he said.

So far, many drivers are putting up with paying more for the privilege of parking in Minneapolis. Yet the more difficult Minneapolis makes it to drive and park a car, the more likely drivers will find someplace else to park and go about their business.