book review: Lots of Parking

Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture
John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle
288 pages, 80 b&w illustrations

If you're interested in the history of automobile parking, if you've never consciously acknowledged that part of automobile travel is parking, that the storage place for cars - parking lots and spaces - tremendously shapes the urban fabric of America, then awaken your parking consciousness with Jakel and Sculle's Lots of Parking.

Through a comprehensive review of the evolution of parking in the United States, the authors argue that the parking facility deserves as much study and attention as other uses of land.  One can't help but agree with this argument after examining the excellent maps and aerial photos in the book and noticing just how much land a parking lot actually consumes (a 1972 map of Detroit shows more land devoted to moving or parking automobiles than to any other single use). However, while reading through the authors' meticulous history of different parking issues - for example parking lot aesthetics, orientation and size of parking spaces - your attention might waver and you might find yourself asking "who cares?" As well as the book is written, it's hard to make such details interesting to anyone other than an engineer. That said, Lots of Parking is a still a user-friendly introduction to the shaping of American urban form ... by cars at rest.

John A. Jakle, Professor of Geography at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is the author of City Lights: Illuminating the American Night, which won the 2002 J. B. Jackson Award of the Association of American Geographers. Keith A. Sculle is Head of Research and Education for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Together, Jakle and Sculle are the authors of Fast Food: Restaurants in the Automobile Age, The Motel in America (with Jefferson S. Rogers), and The Gas Station in America.

Comments

[Nick Helmholdt]

I might have to pick it up just to see this 1972 map of Detroit.

Does the book propose any solutions to digging ourselves out of this sea of parking? I believe there were some discussed in 'High Cost of Free Parking' not too long ago - but I haven't gotten around to that yet. In any case - I'm always fascinated by ideas that will minimize parking requirements.