Beijing-parking-ITDP-China

7.9 Banning setback parkingBeijing has abundant parking occurring onsetbacks, the space between the building front(privately owned) and sidewalk (publicly owned).Few practices are as destructive of the urbanenvironment and livability as setback parking.Use of the setback for parking requires incursionof the sidewalk for access to those spaces,damaging the pedestrian environment. On smallersetbacks cars do not even fit on the setbackand spill over onto the sidewalk, leaving little tono space for walking. Moreover it leads to poorbuilding access and backwards urban design.To preserve urban fabric and promote a pedestrianoriented streetscape, setback parking isrecommended to be prohibited and parking to beeliminated or moved to areas behind buildings,ideally combined with physical barriers such asbollards to assist with enforcement.Bogota (Colombia) managed to clear many of itssetbacks from parked cars, starting with the term ofEnrique Penalosa as mayor in the late 1990s.Source: ITDPSetback parking in Kiev (Ukraine) was removed andnow creates a much more attractive shopping environmentwhere shops thrive.Beijing Parking, ITDP-China 1561 March 2015