Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Streetsblog

How the Accommodations We Make for Cars Impose Huge Costs on Cities

Drive-thrus and parking lots are bad news for a city's tax base. Image via Streets.mn

Wide highways, big parking lots, dangerous intersections designed for speed -- there are a lot of downsides to all this car-centric infrastructure, including the way it saps the fiscal health of cities.

Bill Lindeke at Network blog Streets.mn lists seven, from the erosion of the local tax base due to land consumed for highways to public health costs in the form of chronic diseases caused by polluted air and sedentary lifestyles.

It's not just the car traffic that costs cities, but the land devoted to storing cars as well, he writes:

From a strict assessment perspective, there’s nothing less valuable than a surface parking lot. (OK a nuclear waste dump would be worse…) But designing streets to privilege cars means you’ll almost always be building lots of surface parking, scattered in between older or newer core city buildings, around strip malls or industrial parks. Often this involves bulldozing old buildings where half the density has been replaced by parking...

The point is this: every time we pave over the old urban fabric to use it for car storage, we reduce the bottom-line for the city. Imagine what the tax rolls would look like if half or two-thirds of our urban parking lots were valuable buildings instead.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Transportation for America shares its transportation policy recommendations for the next president. Greater Greater Washington looks at the feasibility of building a gondola connecting Georgetown to D.C. Metro. And Bike Portland shows off the city's new two-way protected bike lane, including a bicycle roundabout.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

And the Winner Is…: Streetsblog’s New Video Team Honored with Deadline Club Award

Streetsblog's social media team, led by Engagement Editor Emily Lipstein, received the Deadline Club's award for digital video reporting on Thursday night.

Friday Video: The ‘Clear’ Benefits of Daylighting

The doyen of daylighting is back with a new video.

May 16, 2025

How One Anti-Gov’t Republican Signed onto a Street Safety Bill to Rein in Reckless Drivers

State Sen. Anthony Palumbo went from "government overreach" to reaching across the aisle in a single day.

May 16, 2025

‘All in the Family’: NYPD Commissioner and Power-Broker Mom Are Both Crusading Against E-Bikes

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has justified her criminal crackdown on cycling by saying that complaints about cyclists are the most frequent concerns she hears. Such complaints could be coming from inside the house.

May 16, 2025

Puddles Plague Hudson River Greenway As Rain Batters NYC

Greenway cyclists face dangerous conditions when it rains — as Streetsblog observed this week in Manhattan.

May 16, 2025
See all posts