701 Water Street: Why building more downtown housing for cars may be short-sighted

As the City debates the proposed building of a new parking garage on Market Street downtown, a two-story, 390-space parking deck across the street sits nearly empty...

Parking decks in downtown Charlottesville.

As the City debates the proposed building of a new parking garage on Market Street downtown, a two-story, 390-space parking deck across the street sits nearly empty, the result of some larger trends in transportation and work-life the City may also want to consider.

As Kittelson & Associates, a transportation consulting firm pointed out pre-pandemic, the rise of remote work, ride-sharing services, micro-mobility like scooters and electric bikes, and automated vehicle technology will have a dramatic effect on the future of transportation.

"As transformational technologies continue to decrease in cost and increase in popularity, we will see impacts not only on our transportation system but also on the way we use land...vehicle storage facilities are an important part of the discussion."

Indeed, remote work (and investment in and expansion of broadband service to be able to do that), shopping and the delivery of other services online, the predicted…