Lecture Report: The High Cost of Free Parking – Donald Shoup
May 28th, 2009
At the Masonic Temple in Alexandria last night Dr. Donald Shoup held a lecture on his recent book, “The High Cost of Free Parking.” Dr. Shoup has caused quite a few ripples with findings and has been called everything from the “Rock Star of Parking” to “Anti-American” (guessing the second one might have come from somewhere in Michigan).
Shoup’s discussion centered, as the name of his book indicates, on the real cost associated with free parking, particularly free street parking, and the benefits that communities can see by using performance based pricing for the parking. As nothing in life comes free, he argues that free parking is only free to us in our roll as drivers, but that we pay for it in all other aspects of our lives. This means that we are paying increased taxes to maintain parking, paying for the distorted urban form and degraded sense of place that comes along with auto-centric planning, paying for it through the increased burden the environment, paying for it through increased housing costs that are bundled with parking spaces, and paying for it through lowered redevelopment/reuse of older buildings due prohibitive parking requirements. To compact these many woes and to use parking as a positive generator for change, Shoup recommends three key reforms that he has seen work in communities across the country:
-1: use performance based pricing for street parking which will leave 1-2 or 85% of spots on all blocks available at all times
-2: return all revenue generated from parking in a community directly back to the community to increase public services
-3: reduce off street parking requirements in zoning
The use of performance-based pricing is possible now due to new technologies in the parking meter world, namely digital multi-space meters. The new meters can be adjusted to have different rates for different times of day, or for different lengths of stay on different days of the week. Because the meters are flexible in their set-up, city planning officials will be able to experiment and eventually hone in on “sweet spot” for pricing. This is not an immediate process and does require significant attention by planning officials, but it is a process that will pay huge dividends once completed. The “85% at all times” benchmark ensures that no matter when you come to park, you will be able to find a space and you will pay market value for that space. Managing parking in this manner insures that no time and energy (personal and petrol) are wasted cruising for spots and the fair market value price adjustments help to bring in more revenue during peak hours of usage — without overcharging during “off” periods. This approach can work for commercial streets which would be 100% metered and residential streets that would only require payment of the meter if the parked car did not have the appropriate zoned parking sticker.
Dr. Shoup found that initially many businesses were strongly resistant to a change from free street parking to metered street parking in front of their establishments. They thought that it would be bad for business and that they would reap no benefits. These feelings changed once the concept of keeping the money in the community for public services and improvements is introduced. One it is realized that benefits such as increased street cleaning, graffiti removal, alley improvements, overhead wire removal, plantings and street furniture in their immediate community could be achieved strictly through parking revenue, without an increase in taxes, business and community members became the biggest advocates.
In Old Pasadena, one of Shoup’s case studies, the institution of the meters and performance based parking rates raised $1.2 million dollars over the year for a 15-block area (roughly $80K in improvements and services PER BLOCK). Old Pasadena business owners even began to publicize the efforts through signs stating “Your Meter Money is Making a Difference” and listing out all the services that were being provided. Old Pasadena businesses have seen regeneration in business instead of a decline and life has been brought out to the streetscape.
The reduction in the code minimum parking will allow developers to build parking at a market dictated instead of code dictated rate. Removing the additional burden from developers will free up more money for design, streetscape improvements, etc. Additionally, Dr. Shoup states, it will allow for more adaptive reuse in old buildings that are currently restrained due to parking availability.
There are certainly areas that will be slow to adapt to these sort of ideas and changes to how we look at parking. The storage of automobiles will continue to trump the pedestrian experience for many communities, but this idea can have some foot-hold in more progressive cities and towns, particularly ones with good alternative forms of transportation and a walkable urban grid and scale. San Francisco is working to establish performance based parking around the city, and I believe that Washington, DC could benefit greatly from a similar policy. This is particularly true in mixed-use neighborhoods such as Adams Morgan, 14th/U St, and Dupont Circle where the neighborhood is amply served by public transit, parking as at a premium, and often residents are unable to find available spots on the residential streets due to people visiting the adjacent commercial establishments. Realizing this missed revenue stream can help to fund many of the streetscape improvement projects that are on the table waiting for funding and make the neighborhoods cleaner and safer places to live, work, and play.
Great lecture and another book to add to the reading list (hopefully on some BID and DDOT reading lists as well).
The above picture was taken in Adams Morgan with an Olympus XA2 35mm camera.
step into the light….
April 3rd, 2009
Busy weekend in DC. Lots of Cherry Blossom festivities (including the 10 miler on Sunday that we are doing), a bunch of sports stuff (Nat’s pre-season opener), and a bunch of concerts. Through all this it is important to remember that the Final Four is on Saturday and it is your duty as an American to place yourself in front of a TV with a plethora of beverages (see above, doesn’t you love the soft light inviting you into average/below average beer heaven?) and watch the games. Though admittedly it matters quite a bit less to me as I have no chance, zero, zip, of winning any money in my pools. Ohs well.
Chucktown by water
October 6th, 2008
DC this is not, but we got back from our little jaunt down to Charleston, SC over a week ago and I had still not posted any of the pictures from this lovely city. This shot is from a little sail boat cruise that we decided to take on our Saturday evening. It was a “two-hour tour” but thankfully we did not get shipwrecked like Gilligan and crew of the S.S. Minnow.
All things considered, Charleston would not be a bad place to get “shipwrecked” and have to stay for a while. The historic core was beautiful and had more restaurants and bars than you could shake a stick at. Tremendous efforts had clearly been made to maintain the size, scale, and character of the development, redevelopment, and growth in and about the downtown area. This is great from a preservationist point of view but I felt that the area could really be re-energized by some new development and more progressive architecture. Part of the charm of old European cities (much, much older than Charleston) is the way that the fabric of the city has been able to absorb new ideas and adapt to tasteful changes in architectural styles and forms. This enriches the built environment in these regions and allows you to see them as living, growing, changing cities instead of ones that locked in to a certain time period and refuse to see beyond their own immediate horizon. Judging by the number of permits that I saw in the windows for the most minor changes to the exteriors of the buildings I suspect that it would take a paradigm shift in the thinking of the Charleston Board of Architectural Review to see new development of this character.
As you get away from the historic area (which as far as I could tell only inhabited by tourists and which “locals” generally avoided) and closer to the University of Charleston the town started to feel a bit more real. Throngs of people were out on King St. doing general life things, shopping, getting groceries, going to class, working out, etc, etc. Marion Square had a lively farmers market that made the market downtown feel like a cheap flea market full of worthless chotskies and overpriced sweetgrass baskets. Marion Square also supplied Charleston with a much needed open piece of green for residents and passer-bys to congregate in and partake in the oh-so-important activity of people watching. The historic area had Waterfront park which was equipped with a few “wading” fountains and offered visitors some beautiful views but lacked a central focus and was too spread out to ever seem very populated. It was a pleasant enough place to go and read if you could snag one of the swinging benches but the location and design of the park kept it somewhat isolated from any of the “action” happening in the city surrounding.
The scale and speed of Charleston was ideal for seeing on a nice beach cruiser style bicycle. We rented a couple of these from our hotel and perused the town. As the city itself is not very large this allowed us to get a nice quick lay of the land within a couple hour time frame. At the end of the day we enjoyed our time in Charleston very much and while the city seems to have a bunch of things to work on it I would be hard pressed to name a more “pleasant” town with seeming genuinely nicer people. That being said I think I would start to get a bit claustrophobic if I was to spend an extended amount of time here, at this point in my life anyway….maybe I’ll work on getting that vacation home down there…
Kickballers
June 17th, 2008
Anyone who’s ever been to DC in the spring, summer, fall, or winter has seen
the Kickballers, — teams of people in obnoxiously bright shirts standing around in clumps by the Washington Monument, the Mall, Constitution Avenue, and any other park or memorial area you have ever been to. They’ve also spread to Virginia and Bethesda and various places in between. Why doesn’t DTSS (that’s Downtown Silver Spring) have it’s own league yet?? …they do have that huge open turf area.
Anyways, at first glance you think these people are just standing around in disorganized clusters, but at a closer look it appears they are actually playing kickball in sometimes less than 40 square feet or approximately 1/90th of an actual baseball field. After all, the only prop you need is the ball, and maybe a few bases… or coolers, or extra flip flops. Whatever works.
Most people either 1) are
Kickballers, 2) despise them or 3) used to be a
Kickballer and now silently make fun of them. I, of course, fall into the third category. Since my days as a
WAKA member, I have since graduated onto far superior sports such as softball. Still organized solely for the trip to the bar after the game, but also requiring actual athletic skill and more than one piece of equipment.
Anyways, we stopped by the field at Marie Reed in Adams Morgan on our way home the other night, which is where the picture above was taken. I guess
the Kickballers are okay when they’re on a designated field… and I forgot where I was going with this.
z z z z z z z z z z z z z
April 23rd, 2008
Just lovely weather today Washington. Temperatures topped out in the mid-seventies with no precipitation and moderate humidity. It was certainly perfect day to do pretty much anything outside…..including play dead on the Ellipse in front of the White House.
This can only mean that the sweat-the-moment-you-step-outside humidity is right around the corner. So excited!
all hail the party of the people
March 25th, 2008
On a casual jaunt around Adams Morgan after work last Friday I came across a performance by The People’s Party. This was not a reincarnation of the debunked political party prominent in the American south in the 1890’s, nor a showing by the Spanish “liberal-conservative” party. Oh no! It was a seemingly spontaneous concert by the self described “hippy-hop” group from Venice Beach, CA: The People’s Party. The stage (I use this term loosely, it was a converted van/trailer configuration) was set in front of Asylum with a solid crowd of thirty or so people. These guys rocked, but with a guy playing rock and roll violin and an entourage on the roof, how can you not?
This was my first opportunity to get some use out of my “new” (I think it’s older than me) Olympus XA-2. It is a very fast/discrete little 35mm shooter and should be good for getting some candids.
