Why Many of you still have the Tetris park despite having so much space on your lot Whether a single-family home or apartment.
Commercial lots are different animal though even if the same size they have a more enough spaces to park all the cars of employees and customers alike 99% of the time even the lots, the same size and building as well. And offices and stores regularly have much more people than houses even if hosting a party.
It’s not a matter of space, but how it’s used why not clear a little bit more of the brush or reduce unusable space. Doesn’t necessarily have to be paved maybe graded permeable survive including grass is good.
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Someone has to pay for those parking lots, specifically the land for them. Buildings of those retail spaces, want to maximize their store spaces, not a parking lot which doesn’t necessarily make them money as long as everyone can still park.
Not that we (or I) think that our parking lots are tight by design. They park cars, I barely ever run into a parking lot that I think is too small for my small size car. This goes for apartments and single-family home parking spaces. Most seem to be the right amount of space needed for cars.
>It’s not a matter of space, but how it’s used why not clear a little bit more of the brush or reduce unusable space. Doesn’t necessarily have to be paved maybe graded permeable survive including grass is good.
Do you have an example of what you’re trying to say?
Though many commercial parking lots have grass, trees, etc. Really depends on the individual lot, not so much an all American thing.
I was just in Hilton Head, SC and was at a Walmart there. The parking lot looked like it was out of Hawaii. Lush trees and shrubs everywhere. Was different for a Walmart parking lot but I assume it was designed this way because the climate in that area supports that. So little maintenance. Though I could be wrong.
Tight parking maximizes the number of spaces you can have on a given spot.
Can you give us an example of what you’re talking about? The United States is a gigantic country with huge variation across the entire continent.
Not enough parking is definitely area specific.
Like I could go to a shopping center right now, and there’s going to be 900 extra spaces. Lol
Let me see if I understand the question.
Despite having a lot of land for green spaces and places we want to spread out, but our parking lots (where no one wants to linger) are designed to efficiently pack cars in?
Tight lines means more spots. Organization means better spots for more people.
I do not understand what problem you are trying to solve.
Parking really isn’t that tight here outside a few places. Americans, on average, have a huge amount of parking.
Also, having a ton of land does not change the fact that people only want to park their cars in certain places.
Tighter spots means more spots for the allotted area. So you can have smaller lots overall:
Parking spaces don’t generate income
I have a garage, a driveway, 50’ of street parking…I usually park on my lawn!
Parking tends to be challenging in urban areas. You may struggle to park near where you are going, or have to pay a lot for a space. In those areas, there aren’t many single family homes or extra land around businesses or apartments either though. All of these are the result of real estate prices being high.
In suburbs or small towns, where there are large yards and open landscaping, parking is usually not scarce.
We have lots of parking in most residential areas. Downtown can be tight, but that’s because the value of land goes up and it doesn’t make sense to just have an open lots all over the place. Some older neighborhoods might be tight, but a lot of those were not designed with multi-car families in mind. People park on the sides of the streets and don’t need to park in their lawn. That’s actually illegal in my city. Anything built from the 60s on is going to have plenty of parking in residential areas.
Are you in Southern California? Most of the country isn’t like here.
The developer companies who purchase the land to make a new neighborhood, are greedy and want to fit in as many houses as possible to make more money. So they place the houses too close together and cheat families from having a normal sized yard. This is annoying.
My driveway could fit 6 cars easily and I only have two. I have over an acre and about 1/2 acre is garden. So not everyone has a large plot of land, most suburban homes only sit on 1/4 acre lots.
We have a 2040 sq ft house on a 7000 ft square lot. We have a 2.5 (tadem) garage , 2 spots on the drive way, an extra spot we put in on the other side of the house for RV access and we live in a subdivision on a corner lot so whatever on the front and side that’s public that’s open. We have lots of sparking places ( we 2 cars and 2 trucks plus a travel trailer) most houses around here have a 2 car garage plus drive way. The thing is we don’t have real attacks/basements where I am so the garage tends to be a storage area for many but they still have driveways
Outside of cities, which tend to have limited land, parking is usually very plentiful.
Most cities prohibit parking off of paved surfaces and limit paved surface to 40-50% or less of the front yard.
A lot of these responses don’t seem to be answering the question I thought OP is asking.
Correct me if I’m wrong OP, but it sounds like you’re asking “American houses have HUGE lawns, but you don’t seem to have enough space in the driveway for your cars?”
And I mean, my answer to that is that we want more lawn. It’s designed to maximize the lawn.
Historically a lot of the European colonists were “second sons”: nobles who were not heirs to their family lands. Owning land was a deep seated social signifier for nobility, so a lot of colonists (especially in the south) wanted the castle and grounds their big brothers were getting back in Europe. So the lawns are symbolic of wealth, power, and independence.
HEY YOU KIDS! GET OFF MY LAWN!
Because there are property lines. Apartment complexes or multi family type buildings only want to build enough parking for the number of people that live there with a little extra for guests.
So they want to maximize the rentable space with just enough parking for everyone.
Also most people like a bit of green-space that isn’t just asphalt parking.
are you asking why I don’t want to turn my entire front and back yard into a parking lot? lol
We love our yards, I spend a lot of time in my back yard. and my kids play in the back yard all the time.
I have enough parking for 5 vehicles , though my garage would be blocked.
I don’t have much space on my lot
I am not sure what you are asking about.
Homes will typically have enough parking for the number of vehicles the family has, plus one or two places for visitors. That is typically 2-5 spaces needed. Why would homes need more parking space than that, and why would it be acceptable to get rid of yards and plants to do so?
SUVs & trucks park comfortably in a single parking space- if it was tight, you’d probably see them double parked all the time.
I think you’d need to provide an example. Most modern single family homes have more than enough parking.
Parking on grass result in a muddy mess and erosion issues if you’re on a grade. Additional paved space is considered “impervious” space. This means rain will run off rather than soaking into the ground water. Impervious area increases demand on storm water management systems and has potential negative externalities. There’s a lot of civil engineering design and constraints in modern homes and subdivisions.
Because people living in a neighborhood don’t find parked cars attractive to look at.
The majority of the suburbs were built after World War II, so the homes and lot sizes were relatively smaller than now, especially in more populous areas of the US.
When our neighborhood in Los Angeles was built in 1951, Most families here still only had one car. So the back of our property (the entire property is 55 feet x 100 feet), features a one car garage.
Also, the U.S. population was 150 million in 1950.
Now it has more than doubled, to 340 million.
Now, the three of us in the family all drive our own car, but there is no way in heck I’m giving up valuable green backyard space to create a three car garage.
I’m not entirely sure what you’re saying, but America generally has some pretty massive parking lots (and that’s not a good thing).
So based on your follow-up comment, you’re asking why residences don’t have more parking.
As far as houses go, having a large amount of your property paved is considered ugly. Lawns are sought after for aesthetics. Some houses will have U-shaped driveways that allow you to go in one side and out the other, but you really only see that on larger properties, two acres or more. And even then, it’s still not exactly common.
For apartment buildings, the only thing I can think is the more space used for parking, the less space there is for units that people will be paying rent on. So it comes down to money.
Idk what you’re talking about. Most single family homes have private driveways and sometimes even garages, from my experience, integrated into the plot of the house. As far as apartments go, well, it’s impossible to accommodate for hundreds of residents or more without a parking lot for them to park there cars in. Where I live you’re lucky to even get a parking lot at all with your apartment. It’s mostly street parking in Manhattan, or private garages that practically rob you at gunpoint with their prices. It’s best to just not have a car here.
I have a 3000sqft house. I have a garage that holds two cars, and the driveway can hold four more. Why would I give up the front or backyard for more parking? If I have more guests than that, they can park in the street.
The truth is most contemporary homes in the US regardless of size is built just for show not practical use. It’s one of my pet peeves as well, same with their lots.
Many would like more storage space on the sides or a basement or attic but they are mostly gone from homes.
> Why Many of you still have the Tetris park despite having so much space on your lot Whether a single-family home or apartment.
Because I want to have a nice yard/garden, not a paved lot. Even if I was hosting parties every weekend, I wouldn’t want to pave my front yard. Also, most municipalities have zoning and codes that would forbid it.
I have. No idea what you are talking about. 2 car garage three car driveway and enough spots in the street around my property line for like 15 cars… how much parking do I need?
This is such a non issue for most people
My house has parking for 7 cars and 2 in the garage. I also have zero brush that could be cleared.
I’m really not sure what you are talking about, tbh.
This is a very confusing question, but I’m guessing the answer is: septic systems. A lot of non-urban (surburban, exurban, rural, etc) homes don’t have a sewer hookup, they use septic fields to process wastewater (etc). That means there must be a large field area with no plantings but grass on it, and that also means restrictions of impervious coverage — the house itself, out buildings, and driveways (most jurisdictions count gravel drives as impervious since you don’t need a permit to pave it over later). You need a good amount of, well, pervious ground on your lot to have septic and probably also a well. You can’t pave your lot over for more parking. And for the love of god, do not park or otherwise place heavy stuff atop a septic field, you WILL regret it. Your local municipality’s zoning officer and health departments would be happy to explain it to you.
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