How Much Parking?

Three researchers at University of California, Berkeley, estimated the number of parking spaces in the United States as part of a study on the emission and energy impact of automobiles.  The study titled “Parking infrastructure: energy, emissions, and automobile life-cycle environmental accounting” by Mikhail Chester, Arpad Horvath and Samer Madanat in the journal Environmental Research Letters (Volume 5, Issue 3, July 2010) applied a range of five approaches.  The paper was reported in popular Environmental Research Web, which also is published by the Institute of Physics (a London-based international organization), and later Physics Central, which is published by American Physical Society.

The approach seems well suited for the purpose of the paper.  There must, however, be better methods if the aim is to consider how much space is conserved for vehicles.  Remote sensing technologies seem ripe for paved surfaces while sampling may prove both effective and engaging to people who have an interest in the topic.