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Then there are the colossal tracts of sheer space, the oceans of real estate —a precious commodity in cities especially—that cars have taken from us. Most automobiles are parked 95 percent of the time, just sitting, immobile and unused, doing nothing except hogging up space. From an economic perspective, this is absurd. The financial firm Morgan Stanley has called cars “the world’s most underutilized asset.” From a land-use perspective, it’s infuriating. If you choose to sacrifice square footage in your private home for a garage or driveway, that’s your right. But cars mostly occupy public space. They are parked by the millions on public streets. There is usually no charge for this enormous gift of real estate we collectively bestow on cars. At any given moment, most of that real estate sits empty, waiting for a car to lumber in from some other parking space. The acreage lost is stupendous. Across the United States, there are as many as two billion parking spaces—seven for each motor vehicle. Los Angeles County alone gives up about two hundred square miles of land to parking. Even the supposedly environmentally conscious San Francisco Bay Area contains twice as many parking spaces as it does people. Lined up end-to-end, those spots would circle the Earth—twice. Imagine what else could be done with all that space if it wasn’t covered with asphalt. Think of all the parks, sidewalk cafes, playgrounds, and new housing we could have if we reclaimed even half of that acreage from cars. 

Excerpted from Chp 11 of Power Metal: The Race for the Resources that will shape the future by Vince Beiser.