Pointing the Finger at Planners

"For the past six decades, [city planners have] swallowed the premise of the asphalt nation whole.

It's city planners who've long uncritically accepted the notion that cars should be the focus of our urban design, turning the built environment into one big playground for motor vehicles. It's city planners who've allowed draconian parking requirements, rather than intelligent land use, to determine what gets built - a policy that literally puts humans second to their cars.

But don't take my word for it. In his book 'The High Cost of Free Parking,' UCLA urban planning Professor Donald Shoup flatly states:

"'Parking requirements create great harm: They subsidize cars, distort transportation choices, warp urban form, increase housing costs, burden low-income households, debase urban design, damage the economy, and degrade the environment.'"