IFREE-Sponsored Lecture Series at ESI

Donald Shoup, Ph.D.
Apr. 29th, 2011

"The High Cost of Free Parking"

You can’t tell the right price for parking without looking at the results. Cities should set the right price for curb parking because the wrong prices produce such bad results. Where curb parking is underpriced and overcrowded, a surprising share of traffic can be cruising in search of a place to park.

Sixteen studies conducted between 1927 and 2001 found that, on average, 30 percent of the cars in congested traffic were cruising for parking. To manage curb parking and avoid the problems caused by cruising, some cities have begun to adjust their curb parking prices by location and time of day to produce an 85 percent occupancy rate for curb parking, which corresponds to one vacant space on a typical block with eight curb spaces. The price is too high if many spaces are vacant and too low if no spaces are vacant. But if one or two spaces are vacant on a block and drivers can reliably find open curb spaces at their destinations, the price is just right.

San Francisco has embarked on an ambitious program, called SFpark, to get the prices of curb parking right. The city is installing meters that can charge variable prices and sensors that can report the occupancy of each space in real time. The city will thus have information on curb occupancy rates and the ability to adjust curb parking prices in response to the occupancy rates. The central idea of SFpark is that you cannot set the right price for curb parking without observing the resulting occupancy. The goal is to set the lowest price that will yield one or two open spaces on every block. Small changes in parking prices and location choices can lead to big improvements in transportation efficiency.

Bio:
Donald Shoup is a professor of urban planning at UCLA, where he has served as Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and as Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies. Much of his research has focused on parking as a key link between transportation and land use. This research has drawn widespread praise for revealing how parking policies can help or harm cities, the economy, and the environment. A growing number of cities have adopted Shoup’s recommendations to reduce off-street parking requirements, charge fair market prices for curb parking, and dedicate the meter revenue to finance added public services in the metered districts.

Abstract:
In The High Cost of Free Parking, Donald Shoup argues that minimum parking requirements distort transportation choices, debase urban design, damage the economy, and degrade the environment. He contends that cities have made devastating mistakes with their parking policies, and proposes three basic reforms to undo the damage caused by nearly a century of bad planning: (1) charge prices for on-street parking to achieve about an 85-percent occupancy rate for the curb spaces, (2) use the resulting revenue to pay for public improvements on the metered streets, and (3) remove off-street parking requirements. Some American cities have adopted these policies, and Professor Shoup will report on the results.

Return to the IFREE-ESI Lecture Series