The Hidden Danger of Making Housing Affordable

Reducing on-site parking to make housing affordable puts pressure on street parking, which competes with safe bikeways. Here, a parked car door crashed into a cyclist in Cambridge, MA, causing a bus to run over her. She died instantly.

Do you believe that making badly needed housing more available and affordable is beneficial for the community? So do I. With that in mind, our City government is currently considering a study issue (CDD 19-07) that aims to achieve this by reducing or eliminating residential on-site parking requirements, as one way to lower development costs.

So does Study Issue CDD 19-07 deserve our support? Well, not so fast! The staff report indicates that residents of these reduced-parking houses will be motivated to own fewer cars and make greater use of walking, biking, carpooling and transit. However, in reality, many decades of advocacy experience convinces me that, without a major rethinking of how our transportation policies are implemented, these appealing goals are mostly based on wishful thinking.

Residents will demand that the City provide as much street parking as possible before considering using alternative modes of transportation. Any time residents feel their available on-site parking capacity is insufficient to meet the perceived need, their first and only reaction is to vehemently insist that the City provide more street parking. And they usually get it, at the expense of safe bike accommodation.

It's a vicious cycle. Decision-makers are pressured to accept the idea that all road uses, regardless of merit, should be squeezed into the available space by simply slashing away safety margins. The unsafe roadways in turn deter most people from cycling there. The lack of cyclists is misinterpreted as a lack of demand, thereby justifying the decision to not treat seriously the safety concerns of cyclists.

The only solution to break this vicious cycle is to have absolute safeguards in place to guarantee that any assertion of a need for additional vehicle storage shall not be addressed by allowing parking on the street if it adversely affects the safety of transportation users. In fact, such safeguards have existed since 2008 in the form of crystal-clear City transportation policies. See the Land Use and Transportation Element of the General Plan, LT-3.8, LT-3.9, LT-3.10, which prioritize safe bike lanes over street parking. Trouble is, these policies are routinely ignored without any rational explanation or accountability.

Perhaps CDD 19-07 will provide a forum to focus attention on correcting this persistent and dangerous deficiency. Let’s hope so, and work to make that a part of this study issue as it progresses. It is currently planned for completion in February 2026, so be alert for upcoming opportunities to provide public comment.

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About the Author

Kevin Jackson is a long-time active transportation advocate. He served on the Sunnyvale Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission for many years and is currently on the Board of Sunnyvale Safe Streets.