On Friday, Sept. 20, 5th Street was a buzz. The area in Tech Square is often bustling with constant movement from cars, trucks and other motor vehicles passing through the area at all times of the day; all the while, the few parallel parking spaces available in the area seemed to be always filled. However, instead of the bustling of cars and the cacophony of horns and beeps, the street was bustling with people and pedestrians. Instead of parking spaces being filled with a combination of Audis, Hondas and Nissans, parking spaces were filled with lawn chairs, tables and crafts. Instead of the noise of horns and music blasting from cars, there was a cacophony of conversation.
This switch-up comes as a courtesy from the Student Planning Association (SPA). The on-campus organization is composed of graduate students from the Institute’s School of City and Regional Planning. SPA plans many different academic, social and community events for both graduate and undergraduate students to enjoy. SPA’s Park(ing) Day was the cause behind the Tech Square takeover. For Park(ing) Day, SPA invited both on-campus and outside groups to occupy parking spaces and make them their own.
The Institute’s Center for Sustainable Communities and Research (SCoRE) was one such group. SCoRE is composed of students and faculty focusing on sustainability research and education in the Atlanta area and the state of Georgia overall. Perrin Brady, fifth-year HTS, explained their purpose for being there.
“We were invited to table for SCoRE to just come and show what we could do with the parking space,” Brady said. “We have information about who we are, and the other stuff is fun — drawing and tarot readings.”
The main feature of the table was their pinwheel, which attendees were able to spin and possibly get a prize. Annie Lin, first-year ENVS, explained its purpose more thoroughly.
“We have discussion questions. We are trying to spark meaningful discussion. If they give a legitimate answer, then they can get merchandise,” Lin said.
The representative from SCoRE filled their space with as much as they could while encouraging engagement from pedestrians. “If this place wasn’t a parking space or had to be occupied by a car, what could we do with it,” Brady said.
SCoRe was not the only Institute organization present at Park(ing) Day. The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and Women Transportation Seminar (WTS) shared a parking space. Both groups focus on students interested in developing transportation in the future. Abraham Pizano, first-year M.S. CEE and president of ITE, explained their perspective.
“We are representing traffic engineers who are not just focused on cars. Traffic engineers always worry about adding one more lane. We want to see more multimodal transportation like bikes, pedestrians and public transportation represented in our sector,” Pianzo said.
Their table featured streets made out of playdough, allowing people to make what they wanted out of the child’s toy and add it to their model.
“There’s more to streets than cars. We tend to see stress as just for cars, especially in the US. The street can be a safe place for people of every identity and mobility to get around,” Pizano said. “The main idea is for everyone to see streets as space for everyone. They can be comfortable and welcoming.”
More than just Institute-specific organizations were present at the event. Representatives from MARTA, Sierra Club, and King of Pops were occupying spaces normally taken up by cars. Despite these varying interests, all of the groups present had one common goal of giving back streets and cities to people instead of cars.
Park(ing) Day events are not exclusive to the Institute. Parking Day actually takes place all around the world, with events taking place in Detroit, Michigan, Harlem, New York and Linz, Austria. Other American universities have also participated, including Louisiana State University and West Chester University. Globally, Parking Day was started in 2005 as an art installation in a San Francisco parking space. That art installation has now become a global annual event focused on bringing attention to dependency on cars.
“I want people to be more aware of how car-focused our world is and how we should change it,” Lin said.
If you want to get involved, check out the SPA Instagram page at @spa_gatech for upcoming events.