I am curious to see if it plays out the way experts anticipate. I'd worry that cars are increasingly parked alongside roads, taking up space.
I would love for parking to be a mandatory part of any real estate here in Germany.

The idea is to remove free parking on the road side as well. Taking up space from the public like this shouldn't be free. The end goal is to reduce the numbers of cars, not to put them somewhere else.

This will result in motorcycles and ebikes occupying all the space

How come this is uplifting news. This makes me want to curl up and die

Even if that were true, it would still be better than cars taking all the space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXLqrMljdfU - Yes, this is uplifting news for all but the terminally car-brained.

Spanish cities are very dense, have a lot of public transport , and very little free parking. You can walk to most places in less time than it takes to ride there and find parking.

I'm curious about your circumstances, do you live in a town or a car centric country?

This isn't the way to get rid of cars. If public transit is still shit, people will still have cars. They will instead park on the roadside and be more unhappy that their parking isn't convenient.

Classic USA person to me

A single car parking space can accomodate three to four motocycles / big scooters or up to ~15 bicycle / small E-Scooter parking spaces (or even more when stacked).

Likewise a single car parking space can be converted into two lots for small wheelchair-accessible mobility vehicles (basically tiny 50 kmh cars just bigger than the wheelchair that can be driven straight into them). Which still offer better accessibility.

It's not even a damn competition.

What do you think tax money pays for? And what do you think making building install parking is? Paying for parking….

If you remove the free parking and remove mandatory parking in buildings. Where would the parking be?

Hard no. Parking shouldn't be bound as a necessity to every real estate, but every car ownership (see Japan).

There of course is an argument to make sure there's enough parking per let's say square 100m for everyone who'd need it for their car (even more so if this free's up the damn road), but mandating an available car parking space for any real estate would go the wrong direction.

There is no way to get rid of cars without inconveniencing drivers, and they will have to be very inconvenienced.

Public transport in Barcelona is excellent

fuckcars is leaking again.

this is not uplifting news. this is the opposite. this is the reduction of tenant rights.

The right to parking? That's up there with the right to free hand sanitizer as you enter a building.

Getting rid of parking is 100% the easiest way to get rid of cars. Maybe second easiest besides replacing roads with pedestrian walk ways.

It's not free if it's deeded to the property.

I think this is one of the key quotes:

“It used to make sense to require parking in homes to avoid public spaces being filled. But this generates traffic because it encourages people to drive. Young people are also less likely to own a car. They may either opt for car sharing or renting.”

There's practically no free public parking in Barcelona. It's either for-pay or you have a resident permit.

I hope this frees up space, not just for sustainable transportation but also for more affordable housing, something Barcelona really needs ...

That sounds like a welcome reduction in housing cost in an expensive, densely populated city with good public transportation

Since when is a parking spot a right? At least where I have lived so far, no apartment ever came with a guarantee for a parking spot, either you had to pay for a resident permit in your respective zone, or find a public spot, with free public parking (thankfully) becoming a rare occurrence these days ... very few buildings I ever lived in had a garage ...

Parking on the roadside (outside the official parking spots, which you have to pay for) will usually get you a ticket or towed ... free public roadside parking is mostly a thing of the past in most densely-populated places, really ...

I only visited but it seemed very good to me. Up by the university I was astounded by how much they packed (subway, trams, buses going anywhere and everywhere.)

Public transport in Barcelona is great, and street parking for residents is also pretty affordable.

That's how it played out in my neighborhood. The less space for cars on private property, the more cars left out on the street. The cars become a problem without even being used.

Since when is a parking spot a right?

it was before this was repealed.

At least where I have lived so far...

insufficient evidence to show that this isn't a tenant right. you're just using your objective opinion as a kludge to hammer your opinion down as a "fact".

you are a liar.

oh sure, it's a "reduction" because you agree with it.

while in reality it's an erosion of tenant rights that won't stop until the only right you have is to pay them and "enjoy" what you get.

I currently live in a city with a massive car problem which is not addressed in any way.

Removing underground parking here means that all the cars will be left in the streets blocking pedestrians and cyclists

It is rare, but there are some houses in my area that don't come with dedicated parking. There is open street parking, and "good luck". No garage, no drive-way.

Like this will actually cause prices to down. I could see some Landlords trying to upsale this for higher prices.

no, you imbecile, tenant rights. not to be confused with "human rights" as you have clearly done so to somehow strengthen your misguided opinion.

tenant rights are rights that protect tenants from corrupt landlords that attempt to use the tenancy system wholly in their favor in an attempt to circumvent protections or responsibilities that have been set by law.

how does the repealing of this protect tenants?

It was a right in Barcelona that had been won and written into the building code by a coalition between tenants and others tired of trying to find street parking. As has been the case in many cities. Los Angeles, for instance, is just starting to allow exemptions for apartments near the Metro stations, as they are finally getting better (not great but better than nothing) public transit and struggling with a lack of affordable housing.

Building efficient inexpensive public transit is the best way to get rid of cars. Otherwise you just have cars circling blocks looking for a parking spot.

A lot of wheelchair users need someone else to drive the vehicle because it's not just their legs which don't work. Or because they're children or elders. A minivan is the smallest vehicle they can use. Especially if they have kids as well. And public transit is often difficult or impossible, especially older systems. (I can't judge Barcelona's in particular, the buses are accessible though I've read there's problems with/scarcity of elevators in key Metro stations)

I mean, in an ideal world, this is great.

I think it needs a followup to at least track, possibly tax, residents of apartments which lack parking who also own cars. In small numbers it's no big deal, but it could quickly get out of hand.

unhappy that their parking isn’t convenient.

Oh no, not me, I'm perfectly fiiiine walking as far as necessary to get to my apartment from my parking space (says the people who are able to drive home in the middle of the day and park up for the night when everybody else is at work).

It's not just lack of convenience, it's behaviors: double parking, congestion, Oh I'm just going in for a second...

People do occasionally travel outside of metro transport coverage.

I still view the Japanese model as ideal ...

Your city doesn't enforce street parking restrictions?

I think many people are imagining it wrong, though ... it's not like every house in Barcelona has a parking garage, especially in the old town, but also in newer dense neighborhoods. It's just my estimate based on observation but I would say apartment buildings WITH a parking garage are the exception rather than the norm. If they have a garage, you still have to pay extra for the spot usually.

As a resident you can apply for resident street parking, which gives you preferential parking in the parking zones associated with your neighborhood. That's not free, either, but you can park at a discount.

But typically renting an apartment doesn't come with any guarantee that you'll have guaranteed immediate access to parking close to your place ... heck, if you're living in the old town you might have trouble finding a place to put your bicycle ....

EDIT: the article only mentions selling, not renting, so, not sure how that compares really ...

Oh I mixed it up. Thought the whole "parking with real estate" was mandatory there, but it totally makes sense to connect that to car ownership.

All of that is true in some cases, for which there still can be and are parking spots. But those cases can't be used as a scapegoat to build everything for cars (mentioning this specifically since car-brained people constantly do exactly that). Even in streets not made for cars you can drive if there are good reasons (emergency, moving in and out, accessibility…). Not to mention that, if a city or town you live in was build properly, even families don't necessarily need their own car there.

If your cities' public transport still isn't wheelchair-compatible that's a totally different (huge) issue.

They'll do that one or two times in a city before realizing it's better to take public transit in.

I knew people who would move their cars every week just to be able to drive out of the city once a month.

Not disagreeing with your points but I want to mention that people who live in cities often like to get away from them to the countryside fairly frequently, and that can't be done on public transit, especially if they need to take stuff with them. Planning should take that into account, and provision made.

Enforces, but they've replaced fines with towing and now though the cost of parking like an idiot is higher, the budget gains from this decision are at an all time high, the reality is that streets are full of cars parked at pedestrian walks. Because the towing capacity is the bottleneck here

Sounds like they're working on addressing the problem to me.

I think this is fine

It means easier rules for housing in a city that's mostly friendly to public transit and biking, which should help with the rising housing cost Spain is dealing with.

If you live in barcelona you aren't expecting to need a car anyways.

Barcelona has great public transit and quite a decent bike lane network. I have no idea why people use cars in Barcelona.

That's what Carsharing is for.