While out and about, I snipped a few pics of parking lots. In theory, these are sized for max needs...which is today, Black Friday. Maybe, just maybe, asphalt space isn't the "best and highest use"?
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One corner was not as bad. It has Sherwin Williams (paint), Metro Merch (discount), American Freight (mattress and such), and number of infill restaurants added later into the lot.
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On the other corners, McDs had more cars than I'd have expected. Ross (discount clothes) was kinda busy. Harbor Freight always has traffic for holiday sales. The rest? Very little.
One corner has a church as an anchor tenant -- a lot of parking used a day or two per week.
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Another corner has a church adjacent, with dedicated parking. Two medical complexes are adjacent, too, with dedicated parking, yet these use parking during different times, mostly.
Nowhere is there dense residential near, which could (re)use yet another parking phase.
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Net impact? A desolate desert of asphalt, that is unpleasant to bike through, and positively discouraging to walk.
Yet downtown, people complain about having to walk 2 small-blocks for parking....which is shorter than the width of these lots.
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Important point, these spaces are so generic and the impacts so consistent, you can't tell what city is pictured without looking. 😑
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I could go another few miles to the "new" big-box mall off the highway, and we could do the whole thing again, just as generically! Same stores, same asphalt plains, same traffic....
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Every one of these could host a solar panel farm, saving thousands of acres of desert or grassland.
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Heck, even the buildings don't have solar yet.
But most of the space should be buildings, not parking. But sure, put solar on all of it.
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