This map recently went viral in Connecticut as it showed that more than 20% of downtown Hartford was made up of car parks. As seen on the map, the blue area represents these parks which occupy a huge part of the area.

Furthermore, the data also reads, “Excludes underground, podium parking, and metered street parking.” In other words, this could easily rise the actual number of downtown Hartford parking spots to well over 25% of the total space. When looked at this way, this number seems way too high – and it hasn’t gone down well with locals.

Now, you’d expect some of the space to be given to parking, seeing as this is the capital of the state. Irrespective, you would imagine this would be below 10% especially when public transport is easily available. For instance, the same study in Boston shows that only 7% of their downtown is made up of parking spots.

Speaking on this issue, one local said: “Hopefully someday, the state can do something to make Hartford a more desirable place – a place people want to live and work.” while another claimed, “Way too much parking. The problem is that it’s a very unproductive land use for an urban core. Especially for a city with a really good bus network.”

When coupled with higher rent prices than ever, you can see why Hartford residents aren’t particularly happy about things. Hopefully future developments build over some of these parking spaces – but in all honestly this may be a while until it comes to fruition.