The High Cost of Free Parking

Bloomington was host today to Dr. Donald Shoup, professor of Urban Planning at UCLA. He spoke mostly about his book, The High Cost of Free Parking.His main argument is that "The cost of parking is hidden in higher prices for everything else. In addition to the monetary cost, which is enormous, free parking imposes many other hidden costs on cities, the economy, and the environment." Parking is only free to the driver. The cost is passed on to homeowners and renters and consumers in higher land costs, rent and product costs. He also argued that modern minimum parking requirements in our Zoning Ordinances help to subsidize the costs of owning and driving a car. His solution? Do away with mandatory minimum parking requirements and price public parking to meet the demand. Then use the revenue from public parking to pay for targeted infrastructure improvements in the neighborhoods that generate the revenue.