Connection
If you build it, they will come
Preparing for infrastructure that leads to more sustainable and equitable communities
Infrastructure can be a political buzzword, but it has become reinvigorated with the American Jobs Plan proposing a substantial investment in our nation’s infrastructure. The AIA issued a statement in 2017 advocating for buildings as infrastructure, and the American Jobs Plan has expanded the definition of infrastructure by including the reform of some of the institutional problems associated with our cities. While infrastructure is at the top of the institute’s 2021 government advocacy list1, there are several things that we as architects are well suited to advocate for locally to improve and ready our cities for the types of infrastructure improvements that will help lead to more sustainable and equitable communities. Below, I have outlined a few suggestions centered on architecture, planning, and land use that we as architects can be local advocates for, beginning with the most universal and transitioning to the more contextual. Eliminate Parking Minimums Almost every city’s zoning code requires a minimum amount of parking for a building or business that can often be based on arbitrary designations. Parking minimums operate under the assumption that driving a personal vehicle is the primary mode for all transportation and therefore everywhere must accommodate the storage of those personal vehicles. Free parking isn’t free. Public parking provided by citizens’ tax dollars means low-income people, who make up the majority of those who do not own a vehicle, are subsidizing car owners’ choice to drive everywhere. For private developments, the cost of constructing parking can substantially increase the overall cost of a project, which only exacerbates the cost of housing in our cities. On average, building an affordable parking structure can cost over $20,000 per space.2 “Having an abundance of free parking — and requiring it to be built along with all new developments — spurs the design of cities that depend wholly on cars, making it more difficult for people who can’t afford cars to get around.”3 Eliminating mandatory parking minimums won’t eliminate parking, but it will allow cities and developers to build an appropriate amount of parking based on the local context and prioritize other modes of transportation.
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Cities in the U.S., including Buffalo4 and most recently Minneapolis5, have started changing their parking policies. Minneapolis Council Member Steve Fletcher justified this policy change by stating, “We want more people to be able to live, work, and play in Minneapolis without a car — it’s better for our climate, it’s healthier for people’s lives, and it makes Minneapolis a more affordable place to live by reducing the cost of transportation. By removing minimum parking requirements and instead encouraging a variety of strategies to increase walking, biking, and transit use, we will not only reduce the cost of new housing but also spur the creation of more walkable neighborhoods.”6 Equitable Mobility While eliminating parking helps us reorient our cities toward more sustainable and affordable modes of transportation, the next step is to prioritize the ability to get around as a pedestrian or cyclist and via public transit. Simple changes such as “leading pedestrian intervals,” giving pedestrians a head start at intersections, can make pedestrian travel much safer, reducing collisions by as much as 60%.7 Curb extensions or bump-outs can help slow cars at intersections and shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians, which can also make them safer. For cyclists, providing dedicated infrastructure is required. If we want more people in our cities to be able to get around by bike, we must make bicycling safe for the most vulnerable people on the road. While dedicated bike lanes are a good start if your city has nothing in the way of cycling infrastructure, the average person is unlikely to feel safe getting on a bike with only a stripe of paint between them and a fast-moving car. A study from the University of Colorado Denver found that building real, protected cycling infrastructure leads to increased bicycling usage and makes streets safer for everyone: “[S]afer cities aren’t due to the increase in cyclists, but the infrastructure built for them — specifically, separated and protected bike lanes. … [B]icycling infrastructure is significantly associated with fewer fatalities and better road-safety outcomes.”8 Getting these types of design elements approved often requires political
