Parking standards and dedicated parking areas

The parking standard determines the number of parking spaces that must be provided in a project based on its size, nature, and/or the number of housing units it contains. In recent years, the Israeli national parking standard has been updated, and the required number of parking spaces has been significantly reduced. Additionally, has been partially changed from a minimum standard to a maximum standard, meaning that instead of allowing more parking spaces than the standard requires, only up to the upper limit set by the standard can now be provided. The biggest change relates to commercial areas and areas close to major public transportation corridors. However, many cities are not quick to adopt the option of reducing the number of parking spaces, especially when it comes to residential areas. Parking standards generally reflect the assumption that almost every household owns at least one private vehicle. Furthermore, both national and municipal parking standards do not take into account the price of parking and typically examine each building separately, without considering the overall parking supply in the area.

In many cities, parking is the land use that occupies the largest area after residential use; an area that may be almost equal in size to the total area dedicated to all non-residential uses. In Jerusalem, for example, the total area of residential units is about 19 million square meters, while the total area of parking is between 5 and 7 million square meters (including street parking). In total, this amounts to an area 25 times the size of Sacher Garden in the city, and even larger than Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. In other words, in Jerusalem, while each person is limited to a modest living space of about 22 square meters on average, stationary vehicles are allotted a space of about 25-30 square meters on average (this area, of course, does not include the square footage of roads). The total area of buildings for all non-residential uses is only about 12 million square meters.