Less space for parking means more space for other uses. Less space for parking almost certainly also means less driving in general. If, by contrast, we decide to add more parking because there are more residents, jobs, and shops, congestion will get worse. Some cities take a radical approach to dealing with parking. Many municipalities disallow overnight on-street parking to ensure that households with cars have somewhere to put them. Japanese cities take this a step further and require proof of a parking space in order to buy a car. These policies are not politically feasible, deeply disruptive to implement, and probably not even economically desirable in Philadelphia. Nevertheless, there are many opportunities throughout the city to put urban parking to better use. In some neighborhoods, this probably means replacing more parking with more loading zones. In others, it might mean replacing parking during daytime hours with a bus-only lane. — Erick Guerra, assistant professor in city and regional planning at University of Pennsylvania.