Parking and Public Health

Parking is a ubiquitous feature of the built environment, but its implications for public health are under-examined. This narrative review synthesizes literature to describe pathways through which parking may affect population health.

We begin by contextualizing the issue, outlining key terminology, the sheer scale of land dedicated to parking, and the historical factors that led to this dominant land use. Next, we delineate four pathways linking parking with public health: 1) Promoting driving and car dependency, affecting air pollution, greenhouse-gas emissions, physical activity, traffic-related injuries and fatalities, and accessibility; 2) Creating impervious surfaces, with consequences for urban heat, flooding, water pollution, and green space; 3) Affecting housing affordability and associated health outcomes of this social determinant; and 4) Design, construction, and maintenance, the health impacts of which include on-street parking’s positive and negative impacts on safety for all roadway users, air-quality effects of parking’s construction and maintenance, and the potential for green parking lots to mitigate some health consequences of impervious surfaces.

While evidence supports each pathway, additional empirical research is needed to evaluate impacts of parking on public-health outcomes. As a dominant feature of the built environment with many health implications, parking warrants attention by public-health research and practice.