eBook The High Cost of Free Parking download

This book is a detailed analysis of parking problems and their solution. Shoup zeroes in on the reason for such problems: we assume that parking should be free. Shoup points out that if we decided that gasoline should be free, the result we would expect would be obvious: people would drive too much, shortages of gasoline would develop, fights would break out over scarce gas, and governments would go broke trying to pay for it all. Shoup shows that parking is no different. Providing free parking leads to overuse, shortages, and conflicts over parking. Cash-strapped local governments and neighborhoods lose out, too. Free parking is like a fertility drug for cars. Many people don't realize how much of the high price of housing is due to requirements by local governments that a certain number of parking spaces must be provided. These costs are paid by everyone, including those who don't own a car.

I agree with Shoup that free parking is the great blind spot of American local politics. I recall vividly a couple of years ago I was attending a church service when it was suddenly interrupted by a person from the neighborhood, screaming that churchgoers had used all the parking spaces in front of his house AGAIN. I could understand why he was upset, because Sunday mornings did cause a serious parking shortage in the streets around the church. Shoup shows how to solve such difficulties: instead of putting in burdensome regulations about who can park where and when, just charge the market price for parking spaces, and make sure most or all of the money goes to the local neighborhood for improved public services. A high price for parking spaces on Sunday would have led churchgoers to find other options, like walking or carpooling. The church's neighbors would benefit from the money, and anyone who really needed a parking space would be able to find one, including on Sunday mornings.

As Shoup admits, nobody likes having to pay for a parking space. But which would you prefer: parking free, or spending a couple of bucks a day for parking and being able to afford to live 10 or 15 miles closer to work? Parking lots are not only ugly, they also consume vast amounts of land, much of which could be put to better uses. One of the great parts of the book is that Shoup discusses exactly how to go about developing political support for putting in parking meters and other methods of paying for parking. Parking technology has come a long way in recent decades, so that payment doesn't have to be inconvenient. Businesses are often afraid that parking meters will drive away customers. Shoup shows that isn't so, and provides several case studies of business districts and neighborhoods that have started charging for parking. What these places find is that their business actually increases, because people no longer have to waste time cruising the neighborhood looking for a parking space. Local governments' tax revenues increase, because valuable land is being used for revenue-producing activities instead of wasted on excess parking lots. Removing parking requirements also makes it much easier to renovate old buildings, which revitalizes neighborhoods.

I was stunned to find out that in some neighborhoods up to 90% of the traffic has been found to be people cruising around looking for a place to park. Shoup shows how charging the right price for parking according to local demand can get rid of this problem. Bus service benefits, too, because the buses don't have to sit in traffic jams and can arrive at their stops on time.

The book does get a little too academic for general readers in spots. There are equations in a few of the chapters. However, the book is too good to let that stop you. Just skip the equations; they aren't necessary to understanding Shoup's points.

I wish I could send a copy of this book to every local government official within 20 miles of where I live. Maybe then the bus service would be better, and when I really needed a parking space I would be able to find one.

Donald Shoup systematically dissects the enormous hidden subsidy provided primarily by local government to automobile transportation and convincingly upends the notion that there just isn't enough parking. The problem, he argues, isn't that there aren't enough spaces, but that so much space is covered in parking, and so much of that parking is free. Shoup's treatment of unprincipled local off-street parking requirements is particularly convincing and ought to be required reading for any urban or suburban zoning board. The reader will be surprised to learn the true cost of parking, both monetary and cultural.

Most urban planners don't understand their own parking requirements. Sure, they can repeat whatever the municipal code says, but they probably don't know how that requirement came to be or whether it's the most appropriate for a particular development. For over 50 years, urban planners have been planning the demise of cities by restricting the number of housing units and other development that can be developed on a lot and requiring a corresponding number of parking spaces per housing unit or building size. The result is the surburban wastelands most planners today abhor, yet continue to perpetuate. It's time to stop advocating a perpetual asphalt wasteland and learn how, in collaboration with market forces, to solve the problem of automobile dependence. For once, sit back and open your mind to the idea that less regulation of parking will actually improve the quality of the urban environment, environmentally, ethically, socially, and aesthetically. It's a fascinating concept that Shoup has adequately researched and put forth for the rest of us to learn from!

As a formerly employed land planner, it was not uncommon to wade through page after page of municipal zoning codes specifying nothing but parking requirements just to determine all the hoops a client would need to jump through. Having used several trees to print parking requirements, clearly parking is a significant concern for cities. As Shoup describes in The High Cost of Free Parking, instead providing seemingly arbitrary (or pseudo-scientific) parking minimums, cities should price parking to better reflect its true cost - affecting demand, rather than supply.

If you're interested in how to create better cities, read this book.

Anyone interested in city planning, zoning policies and the future of transportation will enjoy this book. A topic that could be reduced to dry statistics or an opinionated rant is treated objectively; the author has done his research. He makes a convincing case that current criteria are often inadequate and antiquated. Further, he maintains a lively dialogue with the reader - the examples and analogies he makes enliven and make relevant an important issue that affects us all.

This belongs right next to "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" and "The Power Broker" on your bookshelf. It's a keeper.

The last word on parking by the dean of parking. If you read just one book on the topic, this should be the book.