A study by the Journal of Transport and Land Use (JTLU), published in early 2022, revealed that 37% of single-family homeowners in Sacramento, California, did not park their cars in their garages. Instead, these spaces turned into storage units or large closets, as researcher Catie Gould notes in an article for the Sightline Institute. While this represents just one city, the data aligns with findings from a series of global studies highlighting the underutilization of residential parking spaces. In San Francisco, also in California, a survey found that 49% of the 97 garages analyzed in the Mission District were not used to store vehicles, Gould points out.
She presents other figures that reinforce this scenario: a survey of property owners with one-car garages in a suburb near Reading, England, found that 38% of these spaces were not used for their intended purpose. Meanwhile, in Melbourne, Australia, a study identified that 18% of residents in single-family homes used these spaces for other purposes.
