Parking Lot Spaces explodes in Indiana Survey by Purdue University

[drydem]

Parking lots outnumber people, add to pollution
Andrea Thompson
Sept 19 2007 LiveSicience.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070919/sc_livescience/parkinglotsoutnumberpeopleaddtopollution

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070917_parking_lots.html

summary:
A study, lead by Bryan Pijanowski an associate
professor of forestry and natural resources
at Purdue University, found that in 2005
the number of parking spaces outnumber
drivers by three to one in Indiana's
Tippecanoe County. There was 355,000 parking
spaces for 155,000 residents. Fellow researcher
Bernard Engel said that much of the pollutants
from the parking lots - oil, grease, heavy
metals, and sediments - are not absorbed
by the impervious surface of the parking
lot but instead are flushed by stormwater
into nearby rivers and lakes. Indiana state
climatologist Dev Niyogi also asserts that
the paved surfaces and buildings absorb and
retain heat more efficiently than green
space and create an "urban heat island" effect.
Pijanowski advised that his study did not
include parking spaces on private property
and multi level parking structures - so his
count of parking spaces is a significant
underestimation.

[Jack May]

Post by drydem
Parking lots outnumber people, add to pollution
Andrea Thompson
Sept 19 2007 LiveSicience.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070919/sc_livescience/parkinglotsoutnumberpeopleaddtopollution
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070917_parking_lots.html
A study, lead by Bryan Pijanowski an associate
professor of forestry and natural resources
at Purdue University, found that in 2005
the number of parking spaces outnumber
drivers by three to one in Indiana's
Tippecanoe County. There was 355,000 parking
spaces for 155,000 residents. Fellow researcher
Bernard Engel said that much of the pollutants
from the parking lots - oil, grease, heavy
metals, and sediments - are not absorbed
by the impervious surface of the parking
lot but instead are flushed by stormwater
into nearby rivers and lakes. Indiana state
climatologist Dev Niyogi also asserts that
the paved surfaces and buildings absorb and
retain heat more efficiently than green
space and create an "urban heat island" effect.
Pijanowski advised that his study did not
include parking spaces on private property
and multi level parking structures - so his
count of parking spaces is a significant
underestimation.

If you look down from an airplane, it appears that most of the space
occupied by people is the house and the land they are living on, not the
garage. So it is not obvious that the numbers in the article are
significant or not.

[Pat]

Post by Jack May

Post by drydem
Parking lots outnumber people, add to pollution
Andrea Thompson
Sept 19 2007 LiveSicience.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070919/sc_livescience/parkinglo...
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070917_parking_lots.html
A study, lead by Bryan Pijanowski an associate
professor of forestry and natural resources
at Purdue University, found that in 2005
the number of parking spaces outnumber
drivers by three to one in Indiana's
Tippecanoe County. There was 355,000 parking
spaces for 155,000 residents. Fellow researcher
Bernard Engel said that much of the pollutants
from the parking lots - oil, grease, heavy
metals, and sediments - are not absorbed
by the impervious surface of the parking
lot but instead are flushed by stormwater
into nearby rivers and lakes. Indiana state
climatologist Dev Niyogi also asserts that
the paved surfaces and buildings absorb and
retain heat more efficiently than green
space and create an "urban heat island" effect.
Pijanowski advised that his study did not
include parking spaces on private property
and multi level parking structures - so his
count of parking spaces is a significant
underestimation.

If you look down from an airplane, it appears that most of the space
occupied by people is the house and the land they are living on, not the
garage. So it is not obvious that the numbers in the article are
significant or not.

It appears that it's more significant from an environmental
perspective (run off, heat, etc.) than from a transportation
perspective. In a void, the relationship between parking spaces and
population means nothing because it can be skewed so easily by a large
institution (such as, say a large university or a football stadium).
I would guess that it why ramps and such were excluded.

[Tadej Brezina]

Post by drydem
Parking lots outnumber people, add to pollution
Andrea Thompson
Sept 19 2007 LiveSicience.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070919/sc_livescience/parkinglotsoutnumberpeopleaddtopollution
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070917_parking_lots.html
A study, lead by Bryan Pijanowski an associate
professor of forestry and natural resources
at Purdue University, found that in 2005
the number of parking spaces outnumber
drivers by three to one in Indiana's
Tippecanoe County. There was 355,000 parking
spaces for 155,000 residents. Fellow researcher
Bernard Engel said that much of the pollutants
from the parking lots - oil, grease, heavy
metals, and sediments - are not absorbed
by the impervious surface of the parking
lot but instead are flushed by stormwater
into nearby rivers and lakes. Indiana state
climatologist Dev Niyogi also asserts that
the paved surfaces and buildings absorb and
retain heat more efficiently than green
space and create an "urban heat island" effect.
Pijanowski advised that his study did not
include parking spaces on private property
and multi level parking structures - so his
count of parking spaces is a significant
underestimation.

Thanks for sharing another fine little evidence of how bad logistics of
a transport system can be.
Additionally interesting would be the comparison to actual numbers of
cars eg. registered in this country.

Tadej