Parking

Recently parking has been covered a number of places:

• Parking Spaces Outnumber Cars 3 to 1, Cause Environmental Problems
• The Hidden Costs of Free Parking
• Parking lots are big polluters, study finds
• Parking up the wrong tree
• The perils of parking lots
• The hidden costs of free parking – one space at a time

And now there's an article just out on Salon.com called 'We paved Paradise'. All were sparked by research from Purdue University. Here's quoting from the Salon.com article:

In Tippecanoe County, Ind., there are 250,000 more parking spaces than registered cars and trucks. That means that if every driver left home at the same time and parked at the local mini-marts, grocery stores, churches and schools, there would still be a quarter of a million empty spaces. The county's parking lots take up more than 1,000 football fields, covering more than two square miles, and that's not counting the driveways of homes or parking spots on the street. In a community of 155,000, there are 11 parking spaces for every family.

Bryan Pijanowski, a professor of forestry and natural resources at Purdue University, which is located in Tippecanoe, documented the parking bounty in a study released this September. When it made the news, Pijanowski got puzzled reactions from locals. In short, they said: "Are you crazy? I can never find parking where I'm going!"

That's the paradox of parking. No matter how much land we pave for our idle cars, it always seems as if there isn't enough.

We haven't made a count in the Country town of Chelmsford, Essex - where our office is based - but we expect the number is high.

Now what has this got to do with Wilderness? Well, apart from the fact that a car park is pretty much the perfect antithesis of Wilderness, we do encourage our alumni to think responsibly about transport usage.

• Walk and cycle when possible
• Otherwise use public transport; or, if going to a place inacessible by the above, make sure the space in your vehicle is fully utilised

In either case, get educated about the wider impact of personal transport - Here are a few articles that may be of interest:

• Heat Islands Becoming Heat Continents (TreeHugger)
• Norway Says Cars are not "Green" or "Clean" (TreeHugger)
• Taking Transit: The Most Effective Route to Cutting Carbon (WorldChanging)
• We Don't "Endure" Congestion; We Are Congestion (WorldChanging)
• Should All Cars be Banned from London? (TreeHugger)