Jared pointed me to this Times Colonist letter, which suggests that Victoria needs to critically examine our zoning policies with respect to parking. In the letter, they talk a lot about urban sprawl, and various other, relatively boring outcomes of strong parking requirements for new development in urban centers. I think a much simpler comparison might have more impact: LA has similar policies to Victoria, San Francisco and NYC do not.

Freakonomics did a big series on misconceptions about LA, and why downtown LA has a reputation for sprawling, whereas downtown San Francisco is considered “vibrant”. The most interesting thing they linked to was this study on the true costs of parking in LA.