Abstract
In his 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, 1 Donald Shoup introduced a three-pronged approach to improved parking management: the removal of off-street parking requirements, market-based pricing of on-street parking capacity, and investment of resulting revenue to improve public services. Parking and the City provides a detailed update on U.S. and international progress in achieving these proposed reforms. While at 51 chapters the book is very dense and in places repetitive, it details an impressive amount of advancement over the last 13 years, offers a persuasive argument for updated parking management practices, and links the issue of parking management to some of today’s most pressing policy issues, including urban densification, congestion management, environmental sustainability, and affordable housing. By providing a plethora of case studies from U.S. and international cities of varying sizes with diverse built and political environments, the book offers a number of useful insights and lessons learned to inform the practice of parking management today.
Following a comprehensive introduction that demonstrates Shoup’s endless creativity in the art of the metaphor, the first and longest section of the book is dedicated to discussing the inexact science of off-street parking requirements, and the often-unintended consequences of their enaction. Chapters detailing the origins of the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ commonly used parking trip generation rates and reviewing minimum off-street parking requirements—and the varied metrics used to determine them—across many U.S. cities serve as a useful starting point for discussing the need for new approaches to manage parking demand and capacities.
Much of the first section details recurring themes on the relationships between off-street parking requirements and land development, housing costs, travel behavior, and the environment. These chapters appear to be somewhat random in order—perhaps to highlight the complexity of policy interactions—but together provide a compelling picture of the widespread impacts on cities from existing off-street parking requirements. Studies from Los Angeles detail the sheer amount of space dedicated to parking—possibly limiting other development—and describe the limited traveler interactions with surrounding neighborhoods that occur when travel occurs between two points with on-site parking. A study from New York recognizes that parking minimums can influence the structure of development as plans are adjusted to comply with, or avoid, these requirements. Another Los Angeles study and a project in Buffalo, New York, offer evidence that flexibility and overall reductions in parking requirements can serve as a necessary, if not sufficient, driver of successful adaptive redevelopment for underutilized commercial and industrial space, particularly when paired with on-street parking management.
Two chapters investigating the linkage between housing and parking requirements across the United States identify a need to decouple housing and parking costs to remove barriers to dense and low-cost development and to limit the “deadweight losses” paid by carless households in areas with parking minimums. Historic and recent studies from San Francisco suggest that added housing costs made necessary by minimum parking requirements can exclude a substantial share of potential home buyers, and that removal of such requirements can enable the development of dense affordable housing in areas where the existence of minimum parking requirements may have previously rendered a project cost prohibitive. Chapters describing recent policy actions from the State of California and New York City demonstrate that while it may be challenging to achieve citywide reductions in parking requirements due to public concerns and potential impacts on development incentive structures, targeted updates for uses with limited expected vehicle demands—such as senior and low-income developments in areas well served by transit—may be more politically tenable.
Section I also details the relationships between parking provision and travel demand and parking provision and environmental impacts. A historical analysis of several small cities in New England and elsewhere in the United States provides evidence that higher parking requirements increase drive-alone commuter shares—and ultimately travel mileage by car. A New York City study echoes this finding, identifying ease of access to parking at home as a significant predictor of commuter driving behavior. Other chapters detail the potential water quality and ecological impacts of widespread paved parking in the Upper Midwest and the life cycle costs of building and maintaining structured parking, with a particular focus on particulate matter emissions. The remainder of the book’s first section provides international examples of both site- and demand-based parking management approaches, and offers practical guidance on overcoming stakeholder concerns and political complexities to achieve desired changes to parking minimums.
The book’s middle section investigates Shoup’s second proposed reform—demand-based pricing for on-street parking. Initial chapters introduce the concept of pricing the curb with a goal to provide a specific occupancy (typically 85%) rather that for revenue maximization. In theory, providing drivers willing to pay higher costs with better curb access while dis-incentivizing driving by those unwilling to pay should result in less cruising and ultimately reduced fuel use and air and CO2 emissions. Various chapters present analyses of and lessons learned from the most advanced applications of this concept in the United States to date, the SFPark Program in San Francisco and the Express Park Program in Los Angeles, both of which were introduced as federally funded pilots. Both programs use sensors to monitor parking occupancy, and adjust prices periodically based on the share of time during which occupancy is within a fixed range. Other chapters discuss smaller scale programs in Berkeley and Albany that introduced variable and progressive pricing policies without the expensive investment in sensor infrastructure. Several chapters detail related parking policy decisions that can undermine efforts to manage parking demand and their potential alternatives; specific topics include limited enforcement of informal markets, widespread issuance of disabled parking placards, foregoing pricing during high-demand holiday periods, and tax incentives for employer-paid parking. As a whole, the section effectively outlines the motivations for demand-based pricing, the potential benefits of its implementation, complexities in trying to measure occupancy and impacts on traffic and accessibility, and political, financial, and technological realities that can influence the feasibility, structure, and effectiveness of implementation.
There are a few concepts discussed in this section that demand a more thorough treatment, likely identifying gaps that should be addressed by the broader research community. For example, equity concerns are introduced in several chapters, but are generally dismissed as noncritical if traffic or safety conditions improve for or if revenues are dedicated for projects that benefit transit, bicycles, or pedestrians as these modes are typically more accessible than driving to low-income users. A more rigorous investigation of the specific users impacted, the services provided to them by alternative modes, and their value of time would provide a more convincing justification. Similarly, noting that a small share of users commit an extreme share of parking violations, one chapter proposes a system of progressive fines for parking violations. However, a better understanding of the motivations of frequent violators and the broader impacts of introducing progressive fines is needed to assess the efficacy and appropriateness of such a solution. For example, commercial operators not solely responsible for the time and cost of their parking activity are often repeat violators; introduction of extreme costs to these users could have significant downstream economic impacts on local businesses. In this case, an alternative to progressive pricing may be a more appropriate solution. Finally, the concept of variable pricing based on driver or vehicle characteristics is introduced, using several international examples, including a program in Madrid where parking prices are linked to vehicle emissions. U.S. implementation of such programs is certainly worthy of investigation, but additional discussion is needed to outline the complex factors that could inhibit implementation in the American context—including but not limited to privacy, equity and technology cost considerations and needed multiagency administrative infrastructures.
The book’s final section describes recent and proposed U.S. and international efforts to invest parking meter and permit revenues in public services, particularly through the establishment of parking benefit districts. In parking benefit districts, meter revenues or permit fees collected within a defined area are dedicated for investment in local projects or services such as street or sidewalk improvements, enhanced policing, or communications programs, often with oversight from a business improvement district or advisory board that includes local business owners, residents, or other community stakeholders. Experiences from cities and neighborhoods with varying sizes, land uses, and political environments highlight key factors for successful implementation, including traffic, parking, and community characteristics. The described cases also offer a variety of practical strategies to engage community stakeholders, overcome community opposition, and establish ongoing mechanisms to prioritize investments and manage revenues.
Overall, Parking and the City is a worthy resource to help urban planners, students, researchers, and local decision-makers to understand the extensive implications of local parking policies, to untangle the complex factors that can promote or inhibit change, and to recognize the opportunities for more advanced parking management that have been enabled by technology developments in recent decades. The book also demonstrates the continuing relevance of Shoup’s proposed approach and offers hope that through effective community engagement coupled with the smart design and careful management of de-politicized data-driven solutions, urban areas can achieve real improvements in parking management with community support.