Everybody Wants a Spot: Why Free Parking is a Bad Idea
See Donald Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free Parking, speak about the critical reasons cities need to reform their parking policies.
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Shoup: NPR Puts a Price on Parking. Why Not Cato?
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Streetsblog is pleased to present the third episode in UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup’s ongoing inquiry into whether the Cato Institute’s free market principles extend to the realm of parking policy. Read Shoup’s previous replies to Cato senior fellow Randal O’Toole here and here. Dear Randal, In your September 1 post on Cato@Liberty, you mentioned […]
Congress Gives Itself More Free Parking Than Its Own Rules Allow
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As TransitCenter and the Frontier Group reported last week, the federal government pays a huge $7.3 billion subsidy to people who drive to work by making commuter parking expenses tax exempt. There are countless reasons for Congress to scrap this poorly-conceived, congestion-inducing subsidy. While policymakers consider the big picture, they also ought to examine how […]
Portland Makes Curbside Parking Easier By Taking Away Free Spots
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It’s a lot easier now to find a parking space in Portland. According to city records, available on-street parking spaces have increased about 10 percent since this summer, which among other benefits will probably bring millions in revenue to the city. How did they do it? By reforming a permit program for motorists with disabilities, which […]
The Price of Parking: Let the Free Market Decide?
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The Wall Street Journal ran a piece this weekend by Conor Dougherty on the municipal move toward charging more for parking. It’s available online to paid subscribers only, but here’s a taste: As anyone who has ever circled the block for a marginally better spot knows, parking is an American obsession. It occasionally boils over […]
Some Tips to Help SF Weekly Get Over the Free Parking Obsession
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The folks at SF Weekly seem really upset about the end of free car parking on Sundays. The shock is apparently severe enough that Erin Sherbert put up a post yesterday directing readers to sign the petition demanding an absolute end to the SF Municipal Transportation Agency’s expansion of parking meters, launched by the Eastern Neighborhoods […]
If Americans Paid for the Parking We Consume, We’d Drive 500 Billion Fewer Miles Each Year
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Most parking spots might cost you nothing, but parking is never really free. We just pay for it in ways that are completely divorced from our actual consumption of parking.