programs will exist in the future, but we need to guarantee they’ll be safe and environmentally friendly.
Changing Parking Spaces into Green Spaces
If a human-powered mobility network leads to fewer cars being purchased, there won’t be a need for as many parking spaces as we currently have and the associated cost of their development and upkeep. The land used for parking spaces could instead be used for urban green spaces.
Most of the world’s established cities have been designed to support the flow of automobile traffic, and parking spaces take up massive amounts of land.34 There has never been a study comprehensively evaluating parking in America (and exposing shortages and surpluses); however, a May 2018 “Special Report” from the Research Institute for Housing America confirmed a thesis that Donald Shoup proposed in his book Parking and the City: that far too much space and far too many resources are devoted to parking spaces in American cities.35 36
The study looked at five American cities as case examples: New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Des Moines (Iowa), and Jackson (Wyoming). The number of parking spaces in each city was, respectively: 1.85 million, 2.2 million, 1.6 million, 1.6 million, and 100,119. The average number of parking spaces per household was .06 for New York City, 3.7 for Philadelphia, 5.2 for Seattle, 19.4 for Des Moines, and 27 for Jackson. The study also showed the financial cost of the upkeep of these spaces, measured as the cost of replacements, and the average cost per household, given the population size of each city: $20.1 billion in New York City ($6,750 per household), $17.5 billion in Philadelphia ($29,974 per household), $35.8 billion in Seattle ($117,677 per household), $6.4 billion in Des Moines ($77,165 per household), and $711 million in Jackson ($192,138 per household).37
With high-quality human-powered mobility networks, people could increasingly forgo using automobiles. Work to reduce the number of automobiles on the road is currently being led by cities through benefits given to ride-sharers, such as designated High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) highway lanes (also known as carpool lanes), which may allow faster commutes; ride-hailing taxes, which increase the cost of Ubers and Lyfts in high-congestion areas, and thus may cause more people to instead use human-powered transportation or public transportation; and “pay to drive” taxes, another form of taxes imposed on driving in high-congestion areas. In April 2019, New York City became the first American city to implement a “pay to drive” tax. It targets drivers entering Manhattan and driving into its busiest neighborhoods, with the goal of encouraging more people to use public transportation or carpool.
The number of cars purchased may also be reduced through the automated cars of the future. In Robot, Take the Wheel, author Jason Torchinsky theorizes that we are on a path toward a future filled with automated cars. Torchinsky believes that this could be a future of more car shares and fewer individual car owners, and cars that “drive themselves” around all day instead of sitting in parking spaces.38
As we reduce the number of cars on the road, we need to repurpose the land devoted to parking spaces. It can be used for housing and retail, but Outdoor Cities will prioritize turning parking spaces into green spaces—replacing cars and concrete with parks and trees that absorb pollutants and odors, provide oxygen, clear air through carbon absorption, boost resiliency in the face of extreme weather, control greenhouse gases to combat climate change, and cool city streets.39 It’s a healthier future for our bodies and our planet.
Greenbelts
Wrapping around the Greater Boston area between interstate highways Route 495 and Route 95/128 is the Bay Circuit Trail (BCT), a 230-mile trail that passes through fifty-seven communities. The trail mostly winds through wooded areas, but it also cuts through parks, conservation land, and other green spaces. For the nearly four million people who live in the Boston metropolitan area, it offers a close-to-home path to walk, hike, cycle, or horseback ride. The communities along the way comprise all economic classes. Connected by the trail are some of Greater Boston’s most affluent communities and some of its struggling ones.
Conceived of in 1929, the BCT was the brainchild of Benton MacKaye, a forester, planner, and conservationist who, earlier that same decade, conceived of the Appalachian Trail, which was the AMC’s biggest urban trail effort. MacKaye envisioned a ring of greenery, an “outer emerald necklace,” circling the densely populated Boston area.40 The Great Depression and residential and commercial developments delayed the realization of much of MacKaye’s original vision, but interest in the project was renewed in the 1980s. In 1990, the Bay Circuit Alliance (BCA) formed and it saw the BCT through to completion.
Alan French was chair of the BCA through 2016. A former selectman and sporting goods store owner in Andover, Massachusetts, Alan made it his mission to see that MacKaye’s vision was carried out. MacKaye saw the potential the greenbelt held to draw urbanites to the outdoors and serve as a catalyst for economic development, and Alan carried these goals with him as he traveled to the fifty-seven BCT communities along the greenbelt and sold them all on the idea of building it. In November 2016, with great respect and appreciation for Alan’s work, the Appalachian Mountain Club took over the leadership of the BCA. Today the AMC leads dozens of groups on trails through the BCT and works daily to move closer to MacKaye’s ideal. The AMC has also raised more than two million dollars to fund trail work, policy efforts, land acquisition, and trail signage. The funds come from local supporters, and we have thousands of volunteers. The BCT is better utilized than we could have imagined, and we’re proud of the work.
Across the Atlantic, Sheffield, England, was one of the first cities to begin planning a greenbelt, which it did 1938, and the UK continues to value them today. The UK’s national Green Belt policy set out in its Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government’s 2012 National Planning Policy Framework describes the intention of creating greenbelts. It reads:
The government attaches great importance to Green Belts. The fundamental aim of Green Belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open; the essential characteristics of Green Belts are their openness and their permanence.41
The policy identifies five purposes for greenbelts:
1 to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas;
2 to prevent neighboring towns from merging into one another;
3 to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment;
4 to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns; and
5 to assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.42
According to the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the fourteen greenbelts England has today “cover more than 6,000 square miles (15,500 square kilometres) of land, around . . . [its] largest, most historic towns and cities.” England’s greenbelts showcase the country’s work to combat unbridled sprawl while underpinning the sustainable vision of a compact city.43 They have permanent protection, but still face constant threats from developers emboldened by the introduction of a new National Planning Policy Framework in 2012 that allows local municipalities to redesignate greenbelt land and remove conservation restrictions.44 A 2018 report from the CPRE states that nearly 12,000 acres of greenbelt have been lost—“the equivalent of around 5,000 football pitches”—since 2012.45
Other greenbelts around the world include the thriving and beautiful Congo Nile Trail in Rwanda, Milford Track in New Zealand, and the Île-de-France greenbelt just outside Paris. Where greenbelts have been developed, they’ve flourished and proven sustainable catalysts for communities to spend more time outdoors.
It’s not necessary to be a Benton MacKaye or an Alan French to bring a greenbelt to one’s community. Outdoor Citizens should speak with their local municipality leaders, conservation
