Book claims cities waste money offering parking

There is no such thing as free parking – unless you’re driving around a Monopoly board, according to a book released today by the American Planning Association.

Cities and taxpayers are wasting billions of dollars subsidizing parking on valuable land that could be used for housing or parks, says “The High Cost of Free Parking,” a book by Donald Shoup, an urban planning professor at UCLA.

The book challenges traditional thinking that cheap and plentiful parking is smart public policy. It comes at a time when cities and companies are studying how much parking to provide workers and how to encourage higher use of mass transit.

For anyone who has spent countless hours circling for a parking space, the findings are surprising:

Curbside parking in many cities is too cheap. Low rates on parking meters encourage people to cruise the streets to avoid costlier parking lots and garages, says the book being published by the association. The nonprofit group’s 30,000 members help shape the development of communities and regions around the nation.

In popular downtown areas, “land is extremely valuable, yet curb parking is free or has meters with very low prices,” says Shoup, who has studied parking policies around the world for more than two decades. “People drive around and around looking for a curb space. That congests traffic and pollutes the air.”

Cities and suburbs require too many parking spaces around malls, apartments and office buildings, wasting land that could be put to better use. Throughout much of the year, hundreds of spaces sit vacant.

Shoup says cities mismanage parking supplies and pricing in an attempt to provide free or cheap parking to a car-obsessed nation.