Parking for the People
When designed for people, parking becomes a tool for access, safety, and vibrant places—not just a place to leave a car.
Parking for the People reframes the common understanding about parking.
While many expect parking to be free, plentiful, and always available, they also want walkable communities with many transportation choices and more affordable housing. Unfortunately, these two outcomes are at odds. Parking policies and programs that decrease the cost of parking and increase its supply make the total cost of living more expensive, consume significant amounts of land, and encourage more driving. They also, counterintuitively, make parking harder to find.
Parking for the People asks how much of Hawai‘i’s limited public lands should be dedicated to parking—and why—rather than assuming that all parking is good for the community.
Turning parking into place.
A parking lot in Downtown Honolulu is now the Kōkua Hale and houses 222 senior units, helping our kūpuna to live in a bus-rich community within walking distance to groceries, restaurants, entertainment, and more! These surface lots can be more than just private car storage.
Source: Kōkua Hale
Explore available resources:
Parking Trade-offs
Learn about the current state of parking in Hawai‘i:
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Impacting ‘Āina
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Increasing Cost of Living
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Limiting Parking Access
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Maintaining Unsafe Streets
Advocacy Tools
Access detailed resources tailored to your specific concerns:
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Prioritizing ‘Āina
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Reducing Cost of Living
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Accessing Parking
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Making Streets Safer
More Resources
Download resources to drive change in your community:
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Simple Explanations
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Smart Communications
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Technical Studies
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Case Studies
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General Information
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Engagement Materials
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot...
"I wrote Big Yellow Taxi on my first trip to Hawai‘i. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart … this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song … That is a powerful little song because there have been cases in a couple of cities of parking lots being torn up and turned into parks because of it."
Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell