Does downtown Atlanta have too much parking?

ATLANTA - Over a quarter of downtown Atlanta is devoted to parking, according to new data from a nonprofit.

Matthew Garbett with ThreadATL says empty parking lots throughout downtown, many which are empty on Friday nights, could be put to better use.

"As long as it's buildings, I don't care what's in the buildings, as long as it's for people, and purposes, and not for vacant parking," Garbett said.

In fact according to data from Parking Reform Network, 26% of downtown Atlanta is made up of parking lots and decks. While it is not the nation's highest percentage, which goes to Arlington, Texas, with 42%, it is much higher than places like New York City, which comes in at only 1%.

Atlanta has passed legislation to limit the amount of parking spaces for new construction, but Garbett wants to see more done about the existing parking lots to bring more people into parts of downtown.

"We're going to start using our money too, like Invest Atlanta, to help finance the places that don't want to build parking, and can't get bank financing, maybe it's a little risky," Garbett said.

"More and more people are realizing that parking does not mean business. The challenge is getting the people in power to realize that," he added.