Passage of ordinance is an important win for less car traffic

On December 11, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors fully passed Supervisor Jane Kim’s ordinance to “remove parking minimum requirements” where they exist in current planning codes, making it possible to build new housing with no parking in all parts of the city.

This policy – the first of its kind to be adopted by a major city in the United States – is an important win for making San Francisco more pedestrian-friendly. That’s because eliminating the requirement to add parking for new housing developments has the potential to reduce the number of cars and improve our street safety.

Buildings with no parking or minimal parking not only lowers the cost of new housing, it supports the use of transit, walking, and biking – and less driving. An extra bonus is that policy should have the net effect of reducing curb conflicts, thus making streets safer for the most vulnerable and supporting Vision Zero.

Many articles were written over the past few weeks detailing the benefits of this ordinance. SPUR’s piece gets to the heart of why this is especially important for our compact city.

Will this ordinance solve our challenges with increasing vehicle traffic? Of course not. Countless policies shape how safe and pedestrian-friendly our streets are. However, this an important piece of the equation – especially as our city grows.

Thank you to so many of you for speaking up and urging your Supervisor to support this pedestrian-friendly policy.