> thought they only needed 1 space, but it turned out they needed at least 2.

It has a lot more to do with historical post WW2 urban planning models which were designed to make room for increasing household car ownership, which did happen over the decades as public transportation systems were either dismantled or never built in the first place.

Consumers of the time readily bought into that model. We are only reevaluating it today in light of its failure modes.

Counter-point: The "everyone needs ridiculous amount of driveway space" rule existed in a suburb I lived in. We had exceptionally wide streets, but parking any car in the street for any amount of time was strictly forbidden. All of my neighbors complained about how "ghetto" our street looked when my parents visited and parked in the street. People really actually hated the idea of anyone parking in the street, even for a weekend, and so we needed driveways that were large enough to handle the 3 days of the year when we had a couple extra cars around.

That rule was dumb and unnecessary, but was also not a "pointless regulation", it was not "regulatory capture" by the Big Driveway Cartel, and it definitely wasn't a response to a legitimate need for more parking (again, super wide streets that sat empty). It was just a reflection of the deeply held convictions of an extraordinarily parochial population.

Counter-counter-point: Sometimes it is about the level at which the policy is applied. It may be easier to apply it at a county level or state level, etc. It might not make sense for every single street in the county, but since many policies are enforced at a certain level (county, city, state, country) you need to match the policy to the level at which it would be enforced. Otherwise you'd have a gerrymandered law that applies on some streets and not others, which would create yet other problems.

The problem is that if you do not build for that potential need, you then need someone with the ability to say "no." It might be a condo manager, a city parking enforcement worker, etc.

Problem is, that person doesn't exist in most places where required.