Here’s a simple, but profound change we can make in Newton: put the burden on residential parking proponents to justify using city right-of-way for car storage.

There is growing awareness that, of all of the uses of the city right-of-way, residential parking is the least beneficial. The availability of residential parking on public streets encourages more car ownership and more driving and reduces the space available for earth- and neighborhood-friendlier modes like walking and biking. 

New policy suggestion, as we move forward with Complete Streets in Newton: let’s not put the burden on bike and pedestrian advocates to justify removing legacy on-street residential parking. Where there is a choice between bike lanes and residential parking or wider sidewalks and residential parking or traffic calming and residential parking, let’s put the burden on proponents of on-street residential parking to demonstrate why it needs to remain. The fact that some people currently use a street to park is no evidence that parking is a good use.

For any piece of street we look at, we shouldn’t ask whether or not we should remove on-street residential parking, but start the analysis from scratch. What’s the case for on-street residential parking in the first place?