Dr. Shoup: Parking Guru!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Dr. Shoup: Parking Guru!

Shoup, here he is!

World-regarded as an expert on parking policy, UCLA Urban Planning Professor Dr. Donald Shoup is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, a publication so popular among scholars and devotees that he attracts groupies known as Shoupistas at book signings!

According to Dr. Shoup, free parking is the root problem of many of the ills that face our biggest cities. He posits that reforming parking policy will lead to a better pedestrian environment, cleaner streets and air, safer downtown shopping districts, and - yes - even less headaches for drivers trying to find that ever elusive curb space.

In March 2007, Dr. Shoup paid a visit to NYC to enlighten city leaders with his research. Here's part of a taped chat with The Open Planning Project's Mark Gorton.

Lars

I wanna be a Shoup-ista!
viewer

I think the streetsfilm team chose great topics and i enjoy your films. however, i think you don't need to cut to a picture of a parking spot after every sentence.

in this film - during the discussion of Pasadena - you show images of a random muni meter. is this in Pasadena? does it matter? if you want to cut to images - show before/after images of Pasadena.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/trorb/ Clarence

Viewer (#2):

Those meters are MuniMeters from NYC in the 34th to 42nd street area. Since we had edits to cover up we had to cut to something and since we had no access to Pasadena images (that were free) and a deadline to meet we put those in there. As you probably realize, we are working with a very small budget and short turnaround times.

Thanks for the feedback and kudos!
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David Wise

This is an excellent piece of work and very informative. I've passed it around widely around my transportation department and local business community. Work like this is so valuable at really creating awareness - great job!
ecm

Nice work again, folks. You're always interviewing people with interesting points of view.

I'm a bit confused, though. So, 25% of traffic (in the SoHo example) is cars looking for parking. If it cost people money to park, they wouldn't want to drive because they wouldn't want to pay to park....so then they wouldn't drive and then there would be more places for other people to park, and therefore 25% less traffic? Plus we'd have monies to pay for pedestrian improvements? Is this right?

I wonder if people would really drive less and just grudgingly pony up the money to park. At least, I guess we'd have money to pay for much-need ped improvements, and maybe those ped improvements would then encourage people to walk/bike/etc.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/trorb/ Clarence

UPDATE:

Dr. Shoup was able to send us a few Pasadena slides from his presentation. We put 'em in so you can get a small taste of what the experience is like.

Toodle-loo!
Scofflaw

What a pompous posterior this guy is. L.A,is based on the car and we don't need some clown trying to figure out how to fleece us while making the situation worse. If you want a good laugh, Google 'Guru' can't convince the critics at meeting'. He got laughed out of a town meeting in San Diego. Or check out 'A Pile of Shoup' on the http://westwoodparking.blogspot.com/...
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bluehoo

"I’m a bit confused .. If it cost people money to park, they wouldn’t want to drive because they wouldn’t want to pay to park….so then they wouldn’t drive and then there would be more places for other people to park, and therefore 25% less traffic?"

I believe the theory is not so much that a significant amount people would not drive because of the increased cost, but that there would be less congestion because they don't have to spend extra time hunting for an open space, because the price is set high enough that an open space is always available.
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http://transitinutah.blogspot.com/ John D

I am using this on my blog, provided plenty to think about for any major city.
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http://www.ferrypointpark.org Dotti

What about the huge wasted space taken by illegally parked Tractor Trailers and Box Trucks throughout
the Boroughs????
What about the pollution produced by their motors and generators running all night.
There is no booting or towing because there is no impound area large enough for all these illegal vehicles.
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http://www.unige.ch/ses/geo/oum Patrick Boillat

I just discovered your website and I think it is a great platform. I work in transportation planning in Geneva Switzerland and I'm convinced it is essential to promote livable streets and a vibrant city life for urban communities. People like Donald Shoup, or like the brilliant Jane Jacobs was, are fantastic promoters of these ideas.
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Al opf Mountain View

Dr. Shoup, What are your thoughts and have you checked out the use of Automatic Car parking Systems? Cost Vs. use? Thanks , Al
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http://www.agriaffaires.us Tony

Free parking is cheap way to keep the oil and car companies in business. How about free gas? Yeah right, like that'll ever happen.

To fix a problem we cannot proceed by throwing money at the issue nor withdrawing money from the issue. Another solution must be provided such as alternate energy. He speaks of cleaning the air and liberating city streets from the oppression of vehicle. While that may divert an issue for a moment that does certainly not 'fix' anything. Get cleaner cars and then you've fixed something.
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Mark

Shoup would place the ENTIRE burden on the poorer people. Rich and affluent people don't have to do ANYTHING at all to help.

This is just a plan to get the irritating poorer people out of the way of the reach people.

Shoup is just a routine elitist jerk who dares to be even more elitists than those who preceded him. There is nothing new in his ideas other than to take them to ever more extremes.
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Fred

Nevermind that the film talks about "free parking" while showing a car pulling into a meter, or the professor claims "they almost always turn right at every intersection", while showing a car turning left.

This is nothing but a tax grab - enticing the local merchants and neighborhood residents and non-drivers to approve a new revenue stream.
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Anonymous

Poor people don't drive, Mark. They walk or take mass transit, and then they are forced to pay, through store prices, for parking spaces for the wealthier customers. How do you justify that in your world?
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Lise

The question of safety is important for everyone. Once you park your car you become a pedestrian and with so many cars going around in circles looking for parking, your risk of being hit by one increases greatly (health risks are not just air quality related!).

With this in mind, it's in everyone's interest to reduce private car use as much as possible. I am afraid that the much needed municipal revenue stream that public street parking represents will keep municipalities from being tougher on car use in general.
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Ruud van Winden

Great interview and completely right. As people commented below, in some locations governments abuse parking fee's to fix holes in the city's budget. If applied as Dr Shoup explains, parking will be a resource, like any other in the world that should be paid for according to demand.
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