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Indiana
Parking Spaces Outnumber Drivers 3 to 1 in Midwest County; Research Details Hazards of Stormwater Runoff, Heat Island Effect
In the first of several surveys of vehicle impact on land-use patterns, a team of Purdue University-West Lafayette researchers under Forestry and Natural Resources Associate Professor Bryan Pijanowski found that in its home Tippecanoe County -- a typical midsize Midwestern county of 155,000 residents -- parking lots with a total of 355,000 spaces, have taken more than two square miles of land, the equivalent of some 1,000 football fields, and this excludes private-property and multi-level garage parking.
According to Professor Pijanowski and Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Professor Bernard Engel, the land lost to parking lots could produce 250,000 bushels of corn each year.
Instead, the impervious lots collect a lot of pollutants -- oil, grease, sediment and heavy metals, the latter from car batteries and even airborne fumes -- all eventually carried to lakes and streams by rain and stormwater runoff, which also worsens flooding and erosion.
Professor Engel's computer model showed that in comparison to potential runoff from a rural area of the same size, the runoff from the county's parking lots is 25 times heavier and includes 1,000 times more heavy metal content.
In addition, noted state climatologist Dev Niogi, parking lots exacerbate the ''urban heat island effect,'' increasing local temperatures 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.
Having studied the issues for several years, Professor Pijanowski is concerned about the American willingness to pave more and more land each year for cars and trucks.
''In many areas of the world, particularly Europe, cities were planned prior to automobiles, and many locations are typically within walking distance,'' he observed. ''This is just one different way to plan that has certain advantages.''
Nevertheless, he said, huge parking lots ''at big-box stores and mega-churches are rarely filled,'' and their builders, like many other businesses, should consider combined-use or shared parking, which would save on construction and ownership costs while minimizing pavement.
''People can help by first realizing that our land is not unlimited and that we need to use it prudently,'' he stressed. ''They can seek a lifestyle that requires less automobile use. They can express their opinions that parking lots do not have to be as large as they are, attend planning meetings and help guide others to act.'' -- Purdue University 9/11/2007
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