Parking [space] Meter

I don't like urban sprawl. I live in a small town but I fear soon it will become a bedroom community for the city on the other side of the mountain. It takes over an hour to go thirty miles because of all the stop lights every 1/8 mile. I can go nearly 50 miles to the north in the same amount of time. I'm not saying I don't like cities or am anti-growth. On the contrary, I prefer cities but I can't stand the mess of suburbia that grows up around them. The problem is density. Cities grow up and suburbia grows out. It spreads. Skyscrapers can be attractive but strip malls lack that type of luster.

I was thinking that one should measure this unesthetical growth by comparing the nummber of cars registered to a certain municipality to the number of open air parking spaces in the same area. Its a big waste of space, all the parking lots. A spot at home, a spot at work, a spot at the restaurant, and a spot at the store. For those who drive regularly, think about how many parking spaces you use in a given day. I would imagine it would be at least five a day.

I don't know what one would accomplish by getting this ratio, or what it could be used for other than just as a comparative measure but I think it would be interesting. I know this thought isn't really creative or profound but I wanted to entertain it. It also isn't written very coherently but I'm on a work break and I need to go since I'm illegally parked in front of a wifi hotspot.