The sad reality of car dependence: ‘Denver paved over paradise and put up a parking lot’

Denver draws thousands of visitors and new residents every year, but the city is slowly paving over what makes it special.

Denver draws thousands of visitors and new residents every year, but the city is slowly paving over what makes it special.

Frontier Group Communication Director Alana Miller’s Feb. 25 blog post, ‘Denver paved over paradise and put up a parking lot,’ highlights the city’s struggle with expansion and dependence on cars. According to the Denver Post, 60 percent of that paved land is infrastructure for cars. Nearly a quarter is just for parking.

“If hundreds of thousands of people flock to a place because of its access to nature, how do you preserve the natural beauty that brought them there in the first place?” Alana wrote. “Importantly, this provides us with an opportunity to think about the type of city we’re building for the future.”

CoPIRG and our advocates are calling on legislators to expand alternative transportation options and build infrastructure that makes it easier for people to go where they want to go without a car.

Read Alana’s blog here

Photo Caption: Map of the land devoted to parking lots in Denver as of 2016, shown in green.

Photo Credit: Ryan Keeney, Denver Infill