Is Salt Lake City making it difficult to park?

The short answer: No. The city prioritizes parking where it is utilized. It’s just difficult to park directly in front of your destination in a dense city, and it always has been.

Before we get into the numbers, let’s just reset and calibrate our eyes before heading outside. Now, specifically look for parking regardless of your destination. Street parking, multi-story parking garages, lots in front of businesses, lots to the side, lots in the back. Full blocks of parking. Parking is everywhere. But the parking spot directly in front of your destination for that single trip is unlikely to be available. That’s the dilemma. If you have the ability to walk a block, shift towards accepting that short walk. And perhaps we should be reallocating those front row spots for those with accessibility needs, quick drop-offs and pickups, and deliveries.

Now, for the numbers. Looking at off-street parking alone, 29% of the downtown area is parking. Add in 10 ft strips of on-street parking on most every block face. That’s a whole lot of asphalt! So what about these street safety and bike lane projects? The state department of transportation, UDOT, has actually studied this. On projects between 2015-2025, the reduction in on-street parking alone was 6%. This includes large projects that had redundant parking removed, like on 300 West below 900 South. On the flip side, we have better safety and transportation choices. Not bad at all!

And the city does consider parking demand when it redesigns its streets. Just look at 900 South. The Central Ninth district had a net gain of 37 on-street parking spots. Ironically, this neighborhood is known for the 9 Line Trail and as a part of the Green Loop (a linear park space), yet most of the area remains paved for driving and parking. And parking complaints remain regardless, because that front row spot is almost never available in this popular neighborhood. For those 1-2 people to leave their car parked for free on extremely valuable land for 2 hours at a time.

Street safety and bike lane projects are not causing the parking issues. The space inefficiency of cars has always been the root of the problem. And we can certainly make better use of the parking we already have. By providing more mobility choices, like safe walking, biking, and transit infrastructure, we reduce the competition for parking, so it’s a win-win. Just remember that these transportation modes have a minimal footprint, so if you drive past, you’re unlikely to see people walking to storefronts, getting off the bus, or bike locked up along the street.