Even when parked, cars are making cities like Atlanta hotter

As if surface-parking spaces weren’t problematic enough, new research finds that parked cars contribute to urban heat islands, exposing pedestrians to even higher levels of heat stress though the “radiative properties” of the materials cars are made of.

Parking lots at Lenox Mall. Photo: Darin Givens

The effect is most intense in areas where there’s a lot of asphalt all around, and where heat is already intense. Dark colored vehicles are the worst offenders with the biggest thermal impact.

Source: The underestimated impact of parked cars in urban warming, City and Environment Interactions | August 2025

And as we know from a previous analysis, the effects of urban heat are not distributed evenly. They tend to be felt more heavily in historically redlined neighborhoods, where owners of homes are statically more likely to be Black.

Danger levels to health from heat in Atlanta, via CDC.gov

The above image comes from the CDC; it’s an interactive map of where people are most likely to feel the impacts of heat in Atlanta, based on the Heat Health Index. The south and southwestern sections of the city are in the “High top percent” designation for heat impacts.

Despite Atlanta’s cooling canopy of trees, the city averages 11 more 90-degree, or hotter, days in the summer, compared to the old 30-year average. This is part of a warming trend across the U.S.

There are a lot of factors involved in heat risks for urban residents. Reducing the damage from parked cars seems like a worthwhile initiative, and if we can pair that with an overall reduction in car dependency, all the better.