Free Parking Isn't: New Book Finds Parking Policies Devastating Cities; Subsidies Waste Billions

SAN FRANCISCO--March 21, 2005--The High Cost of Free Parking, published by the American Planning Association (APA), released today at a news conference, is the first comprehensive book on the economics and politics of parking. Its author, UCLA professor Dr. Donald Shoup, FAICP, says "wrong-headed" parking policies are "devastating U.S. cities" at the same time generating possibly the "most costly subsidy American cities provide to their citizens."

Between $127 billion and $374 billion was spent nationally to subsidize off-street parking in 2002, he reports, as much as the U.S. spent on Medicare or national defense that year. Yet, "terrific benefits" -- including billions in revenues instead of costs -- would come from eliminating subsidized parking.

Dr. Shoup's contrarian book finds that parking policies do not take into account a host of consequences, including higher housing prices, extreme automobile dependence, extravagant energy use, rapid urban sprawl, social inequity, economic stagnation and environmental degradation.

Most cities view their parking problems as a shortage of spaces, not under pricing. The resulting regulations have led to a surplus of off-street parking spaces. Dr. Shoup estimates there are between three and four parking spaces for every car in the U.S. Combining all of these spaces into one surface lot would take up as much land as the state of Connecticut.

He advises local governments to remove off-street parking requirements and charge market rates for curb parking that vary according to proximity, time of day and day of week. Political backlash, Dr. Shoup suggests, would be virtually absent if the new revenue collected is returned to finance public improvements in the neighborhoods where parking meters are located, instead of going to the municipalities' general funds.

Cities that come closest to charging market rates for curb parking and returning the revenue to the neighborhoods include Old Pasadena and San Diego, CA.

Copies of The High Cost of Free Parking (ISBN: 1-884829-98-8) can be purchased from APA's Planners Book Service for $59.95 plus shipping by calling 312-786-6344 or visiting http://www.planning.org/bookservice/freeparking.