Why? Worst case scenario is that the market decides it does want cars, but the burden of paying for space to store them falls on the people that want them instead of everyone buying/renting a dwelling.
To prevent a tragedy of the commons in street parking spaces, Japan has an excellent system, the shako shomeisho, though looking at how hard it's been to push through a congestion tax in lower Manhattan, I doubt it'd be politically viable anywhere in the US:
"Under the regulation in Japan... all private owned automobile must have a specific parking space. Parking by the roadside is prohibited. The width and length of the space should be sufficient for your vehicle and must be within 2 km from your registered residence address."
Or you end up with fist fights and road rage over limited resources. And it's very easy to say "limit access to cars", but it absolutely requires a build-up of public transit to make up for it, which usually goes beyond local zoning practice
I interpret “let the market decide” as also charging market rates for street parking, in which case the resources are only as limited as the market decides -- if more people want to park than there is room for, the private market can meet that demand by building garages/private lots.
If the market determined the price of parking then people would flip out because parking was only affordable to the middle class and it would instantly be framed as an anti-poor thing.
It would be framed that way, but the irony is that mandatory parking minimums are more anti-poor, it’s just that the burden on the poor is hidden in the cost of housing making it less obvious.
Car ownership is lower among people with very low incomes, but if they want a place to live they still have to pay for parking to be built. Shoup’s book has some examples of proposed low-income housing that ended up getting blocked over parking minimums, even though most of the would-be residents did not own cars.
Not immediately, but internalizing the cost of parking could nudge two-car households towards becoming one-car households, or encouraging people to carpool instead of owning.
I was living in 16 story building with 112 apartments and no parking besides curbside (~30 cars). Worst part there were around 10 such buildings close by. So you have to either adjust your schedule to get back early (or block someone and get out early) or park far away and wall 20 minutes. Wasn’t fun time.
If you have to walk 20 minutes to get a parking space, the parking meters were non-existent, too cheap, an unusual event happened, or parking fees weren't enforced.
