The High Cost of Free Parking (2005)
Donald C. Shoup, APA Planners Press
In this innovative book, UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup challenges traditional parking methodologies and strategies. Free parking, Shoup argues, has contributed to auto dependence, rapid urban sprawl, extravagant energy use, and a host of other problems. The concept of “free” parking distorts transportation choices, results in bad urban design, hurts our economy, and damages the environment. Shoup proposes new ways for cities to regulate parking, namely, charge fair market prices for curb parking, use the resulting revenue to pay for services in the neighborhoods that generate it, and remove zoning requirements for off-street parking.