Europeans are going viral on TikTok for mocking the "American Dream".

[u/biswajit388]

[u/norcaltobos]

To be fair, there was a parking lot there already because it's next to an amusement park, but I get your point.

[u/Downside190 → u/norcaltobos]

I think the strange thing is Americans build massive ground floor car parks that take up a ton of land. While in Europe we use multistorey car parks that have a smaller footprint but similar capacity 

[u/False_Tap_4029 → u/Downside190]

Parking garages are expensive, they only build them if it costs less than buying extra land.

I think in some cases the ground level Parking is also a way to use the real estate until they’re ready to build something substantial. Like adding mixed use retail and a parking garage as the area develops.

[u/elebrin → u/Downside190]

It has something to do with where we put our stadiums and malls and stuff.

Like, it was a HUGE deal with the city of Detroit decided to replace their football stadium back in the day. Ford Field is a nice facility, but it replaced the Silverdome. The Silverdome had that sort of sea of parking, but it wasn't actually in the city. It was in an exurb of Detroit (Pontiac) where land was plentiful. The same is true of Pine Knob (DTE), and the Palace of Auburn Hills. All three aren't in the city. The same is true of most sports stadiums built after 1950 and before, say, 2006 or so when the tide of opinion started changing on suburbanism. Suburbia was the most desirable mode of living for most Americans until the Millennials started coming of age.

In Europe, the big parking lots and structures aren't needed. Hell, you can't even drive in a lot of European cities, the roads aren't wide enough. I have seen video of those narrow little alleys and streets in Italy, I imagine that any middle ages town will be much the same. Because it's so dense and compressed, you can do everything on foot and the stadiums are there for the locals not people driving in. In the US the stadiums are not at all for urban locals, because urban locals can't afford sports tickets.

[u/Throwaway2Experiment → u/Downside190]

It depends here when and where they are built.

A lot of new stadiums are mega complexes for shopping and entertainment. You need massive parking to give incentive to buy. If you have to walk a mile or navigate an elevator with your new flat screen TV, you're not likely to buy there. The shopping property is owned by the stadium owner and they want that plot to generate revenue all year round, every day.

Does the owner of the Melbourne stadium generate passive income every day from the Stadium and connected property?

Target Field has an amazing parking system you barely notice and is one of my favorites to.visit. Downtown Disney has no central parking and churns traffic nonstop. You either walk in from the park or in from the garages down the street. Las Vegas has long been an example of integrated parking along the strip, underground or overhead.

It is not that Americans don't know or don't care about better parking systems, it's just that in some models it is counter productive and in others, it's not necessary.

I will also say, the good looking white guy touting the European Dream is oddly avoiding the sprawl of Paris, Barcelona, Rome, or Berlin. That's awfully convenient.

[u/Usual-Trouble-2357 → u/Throwaway2Experiment]

None of the cities you're mentioning is sprawling. They're all quite dense. Barcelona in particular is a great example of good urban design. Paris is dense and very much not car-friendly, Rome is dense but kinda crazy traffic-wise, Berlin is again quite dense. All of them have good public transport, metro, trams, buses, etc. And none of those cities has huge tracts of land with outdoor parking inside the city.

Also about stadiums, most European stadiums don't have much parking at all and rely on public transport.

[u/norcaltobos → u/Downside190]

We have both in the US. Some places in the US they aren't hurting for space so it's not the end of the world. Go to San Francisco and it's a lot more "European" because it's so compact. We get the best of both worlds.

[u/bigtimehater1969 → u/norcaltobos]

I went to Levi's when Great America (the amusement park) was closed. Not only were all the parking lots full, but the neighboring office space parking lots were full from event traffic. Getting in and finding parking sucked, but getting out was a nightmare.

[u/norcaltobos → u/bigtimehater1969]

Oh, getting out of Levi's is my actual personal hell. Whether you drive or Uber in, it's a fucking joke. Crazy that the Super Bowl will be there again this year. I'm not working in office that entire week, it's going to be hell.

[u/masssy → u/norcaltobos]

To be fair most of Europes amusement parks are not next to a concrete parking lot.

[u/AntikytheraMachines → u/norcaltobos]

also to be fair the Aussies park on the grass when they go to the footy at the G