The Unthinkable is getting thought a lot more these days as the Impossible becomes practical: taking road space in high-traffic zones and converting it, at least temporarily, to park space. And then seeing what happens.
Like this median parking lot on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami:
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A few weeks ago, according to Atlantic Cities, the space was converted to this:
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Tony Garcia, a principal at the Street Plans Collaborative, coordinated with the engineering and architecture firm C3TS and the city’s parking authority to take over a 60-space lot for a week to lay down sod and put up benches. It was open for just five days, closing Sunday, March 4. But it worked.
“There’s no signage. We didn’t put anything that said ‘please come into our event’ because we don’t want it to be an event. It’s just a piece of infrastructure,” Garcia says. “We’re trying to say that this is a really low cost, easy way of getting park space now for the residents of downtown in anticipation of more permanent changes later on. …
“You would think that by taking 60 spaces out of commission that we would squeeze demand on other lots nearby, and that just hasn’t been our experience,” Garcia says. “It’s very promising.”
