Solving Parking: Rethinking Driveway Curb Cuts- Owen Raisch | s04 e07

You can reach Owen Raisch on X (nee Twitter) here: https://twitter.com/owenraischRight to Park: Reclaiming unused curb cuts for public parkingAdam Braus and guest Owen Raisch discuss a San Francisco specific urbanist proposal that would charge homeowners to reserve driveway curb cuts for car access, while returning unused driveway frontage to the public as street parking. The idea is framed as a practical way to add parking, reduce congestion, and reset how cities think about public right of way.They also dig into the broader implications for density, transit funding, bike infrastructure, and how self-driving cars may change the parking equation over time.Email: solutionsfromthemultiverse@gmail.com (mailto:solutionsfromthemultiverse@gmail.com) Adam: @ajbraus (https://twitter.com/ajbraus) - braus@hey.com (mailto:braus@hey.com) Scot: @scotmaupin (https://www.twitter.com/@scotmaupin) adambraus.com (https://www.adambraus.com) (Link to Adam's projects and books) The Perfect Show (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-perfect-show/id1579838291) (Scot's solo podcast) The Numey (https://www.paywithnumey.com) (inflation-free currency) Thanks to Jonah Burns for the SFM music.Key topicsIn this episode, Adam Braus presents a “right to park” proposal for San Francisco: if a homeowner wants their driveway curb cut protected for car access, they pay an annual fee.Owen Raisch helps test the idea from an urbanist angle, emphasizing how the built environment shapes quality of life and transportation choices.Adam argues the policy would convert unused curb cuts into public street parking, potentially adding about 90,000 spaces in San Francisco.The discussion centers on the idea that the default should be public access to the curb unless someone pays for the private exemption.Adam says the proposal is less about raising revenue and more about efficiency, since many curb cuts are unused much of the time.Timestamps00:00 - Intro and Owen’s return as guest 03:05 - The core idea: pay to protect a driveway curb cut 04:23 - How much parking this could add 05:09 - The parking problem this solves 06:18 - Why curb cuts are effectively private use of public space 07:11 - What homeowners already pay versus what the curb cut would cost 11:17 - Comparing the fee to existing street and commercial parking costs 12:39 - Why this creates car-on-car incentives, not just anti-car politics 13:31 - The stat about cars circulating while looking for parking 15:22 - The real yearly cost of car ownership 17:01 - What else that money could be used for instead 18:10 - Why this is not anti-car, but pro-efficiency 19:38 - Where the revenue could go 20:20 - Why San Francisco already considered a similar idea 22:08 - Existing red curb protections and how this could scale them 24:13 - Self-driving cars and whether they change the parking calculus 26:11 - How car ownership changes how people think about transportation 28:00 - This is a driveway tax, not a car tax 29:08 - Why the proposal matches the city that actually exists today 31:24 - Why San Francisco is different from other cities 34:52 - How more parking could unlock more housing density 39:24 - The bike highway idea and removing some parking for protected corridors 41:33 - Why car drivers may benefit from fewer cars overall 44:41 - Bikes, danger, and the asymmetry with cars 46:23 - Naming the proposal “Right to Park” 48:52 - Why the reform is a paradigm shift, not a total fix 51:34 - Wrap-up and closing