By Chris McCahill
Parking policy, especially parking management, is often central to the success of transportation initiatives. When it comes to boosting transit ridership or managing travel demand in cities, the price and availability of parking can have a major influence. But getting those things right can mean reversing decades of policies aimed at bolstering parking supplies and keeping prices low.
A new book from distinguished UCLA professor, Donald Shoup, outlines a three-step approach for reforming outdated policies: 1) eliminating off-street parking requirements; 2) charging the right price for on-street parking; and 3) putting revenues toward parking benefit districts.
The book is a follow-up to Shoup’s acclaimed 2005 publication, The High Cost of Free Parking, and includes chapters from 46 contributing authors based on their own research and practical experiences. SSTI also contributed to a chapter on the long-term effects of parking in cities, written with colleagues Norman Garrick and Carol Atkinson-Palombo from the University of Connecticut. The book is now available from Planners Press and Routledge.
Chris McCahill is an Associate Researcher at SSTI.