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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 330
EAN num: 9781884829987
ISBN number: 1884829988
Label: American Planning Association
Manufacturer: American Planning Association
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 752
Printing Date: March 01, 2005
Publishing house: American Planning Association
Sale Popularity Level: 107695
Studio: American Planning Association
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American drivers park for free on nearly ninety-nine percent of their car trips, and cities require developers to provide ample off-street parking for every new building. The resulting cost? Today we see sprawling cities that are better suited to cars than people and a nationwide fleet of motor vehicles that consume one-eighth of the world's total oil production. Donald Shoup contends in The High Cost of Free Parking that parking is sorely misunderstood and mismanaged by planners, architects, and politicians. He proposes new ways for cities to regulate parking so that Americans can stop paying for free parking's hidden costs.
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Rated by buyers 
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You have to be willing to wade through a few equations to enjoy this book but if you care about cities, economics, or the environment, this impassioned (in its academic way) plea for rational parking management at the neighborhood level can open your eyes to the potential for a win-win solution to the world's infrastructure and quality of life problems. I came out of it saying, "wow, the world would be a better place if I had the option of driving to San Francisco to pay $12 to park on the street at my destination instead of wasting time trying to find free but nonexistent parking." If only.
Rated by buyers 
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Most urban planners don't understand their own parking requirements. Sure, they can repeat whatever the municipal code says, but they probably don't know how that requirement came to be or whether it's the most appropriate for a particular development. For over 50 years, urban planners have been planning the demise of cities by restricting the number of housing units and other development that can be developed on a lot and requiring a corresponding number of parking spaces per housing unit or building size. The result is the surburban wastelands most planners yesterday abhor, yet continue to perpetuate. It's time to stop advocating a perpetual asphalt wasteland and learn how, in collaboration with market forces, to solve the problem of automobile dependence. For once, sit back and open your mind to the idea that less regulation of parking will actually improve the quality of the urban environment, environmentally, ethically, socially, and aesthetically. It's a fascinating concept that Shoup has adequately researched and put forth for the rest of us to learn from!
Rated by buyers -
Donald Shoup systematically dissects the enormous hidden subsidy provided primarily by local government to automobile transportation and convincingly upends the notion that there just isn't enough parking. The problem, he argues, isn't that there aren't enough spaces, but that so much space is covered in parking, and so much of that parking is free. Shoup's treatment of unprincipled local off-street parking requirements is particularly convincing and ought to be required reading for any urban or suburban zoning board. The reader will be surprised to learn the true cost of parking, both monetary and cultural.
Rated by buyers -
Shoup makes a subject that at very first glance would sound boring, quite interesting. The only downside is that he gets a bit repetetive; the book probabaly could have been cut about 150 pages. Still, it's a very valuable resource for any planner or elected official who cares about the health of our cities. The only thing missing is some discusion on how parking immensely increases impervious surface in an area, impacting water quality and supply.
Rated by buyers -
In 100 years, people will look back on this book and realize its value. For now, though, it's far too rational to be of much practical use to planners, engineers or politicians. For anyone who ever imagined that parking requirements were established in accordance with scientific criteria, The High Cost of Free Parking should disabuse them of that notion permanently. Shoup recognizes all too well that parking requirements are imposed merely as a knee-jerk reaction to public fears rather than as a practicable solution to an actual problem. His solutions, though well intended, will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears in most instances--until the price of gas is at $30 per gallon and suddenly there are no cars to fill those free parking lots anymore.
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