{"id":3986,"date":"2023-03-22T16:26:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T23:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parkingreform.org\/?p=3986"},"modified":"2024-02-22T04:42:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T12:42:59","slug":"meet-thomas-carpenito-creator-of-the-parking-lot-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkingreform.org\/2023\/03\/22\/meet-thomas-carpenito-creator-of-the-parking-lot-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Thomas Carpenito, Creator of the Parking Lot Map"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We know parking lots take up too much valuable land in our communities. But how much land, exactly? Parking Reform Network researcher Thomas Carpenito wondered how he could find out \u2014 and how he could make that data make sense to people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parking Reform Network: How did you first become interested in parking reform? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Carpenito:<\/strong> I started university as an environmentalist and slowly ended it as an urbanist. To me, they became the same. Climate change, deforestation, pollution, etc., were well-known topics that I cared about. But as I finished my degree, I found myself with few stories to tell that people hadn\u2019t already heard. I had pursued a career in environmentalism to teach people about topics that affected them personally, but I found it challenging. They could never see the problem where they were and rarely were able to solve it in their communities. I needed a new cause, one where I could make a difference. That’s when I learned about parking reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything we know about cities is intuitive. We know a walkable place when we see it, we feel comfortable in a park when we sit in it; and equally important, we know an unwelcoming place when we want to leave it. So when I found out that parking was a problem, the dots began to align perfectly. To make more places we love, we need less parking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Thomas<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
“I was going to map all land devoted to parking in every major city in the U.S. I quickly realized how difficult that was.”<\/div>