This would happen naturally except that most US cities have made it illegal to build anything without gobs of parking attached, so car drivers like myself get a government handout.
In Tokyo, parking is managed by the market, so it’s incredibly expensive. So it’s always cheaper to take public transit without artificially low public transit prices.
Downtown any big city is accessible by car, but parking fees keep most people away. At least, I won't willingly drive to destinations inside downtown of a big city, unless it's something special that can't be managed otherwise.
Well in the big city I live in, downtown is often very crowded so I don’t think everyone is like you.
And I live in a car centric city. But literally millions of people ride trains in Tokyo everyday, and because of that they have clean air, nice walkable streets, and far few deaths.
Which means suburban style businesses have an advantage, and eventually downtown merchants form an association and start pushing for free parking so they can get customers to show up.
Parking is "super short" because there is never enough supply of something that is free. When you make something free, you induce demand for it.
For almost everywhere in LA country (where I live), it is illegal to have a store, coffee shop, gym, restaurant, laundry mat or almost anything else without attached parking. There are pockets where they've allowed parking reform (like Old Pasadena) and beautiful, walkable neighborhoods spring up. But these are rare exceptions.
I just find it genuinely perplexing. A 1-hour commute in LA is absolutely unremarkable. That's 500 hours a year! We have horrible air pollution even though we're right by the ocean. The weather is perfect and yet people need to go drive someplace to be able to walk around in it. Like why do so many people out here think the status quo is so great?
Expensive is a relative term, but if the parking fills up, then it’s probably not market pricing. When market pricing is used, there will generally be a few open spots. Because if day after day there is more demand for something than there is supply, suppliers will increase the cost and continue to do so until the market reaches equilibrium.
In Tokyo, parking is managed by the market, so it’s incredibly expensive. So it’s always cheaper to take public transit without artificially low public transit prices.