The True Cost of Free Parking

This is a great discussion about two opposing forces in urban (parking) planning, libertarian vs conservative.  It's a long read if you follow through all of the links, but if you have the time, well worth the education.

Shoup vs O’Toole on the market for (free) parking

Posted by admin pci,Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Throughout September, we have been following a (very public) discussion between Donald Shoup and Randal O’Toole (a Cato Institute Senior Fellow working on urban growth, public land, and transportation issues, read full bio here). The discussion started when O’Toole responded to an article in the New York Times, penned by Tyler Cowan, which explained some of the ideas in Shoup’s book ‘The High Cost of Free Parking’.

Shoup replied via Streetsblog, attempting to correct many of O’Toole’s assertions and assumptions – a really interesting read for those who enjoy the Shoupian theories; as it delves into much of the rationale and referencing behind many of the key themes of Shoup’s work.

Further to-ing and fro-ing ensued with O’Toole and Shoup penning public responses, links to which are summarized below:

O'Toole: Donald Shoup on Free Parking
Shoup: Cato HQ the perfect lab for reforming commuter subsidies 

Parking Today’s blog followed the debate intensely, and you can read the (apparent) conclusion on their blog here.

If you want to see and hear Don Shoup and make your own conclusions we strongly invite you to register for the upcoming Australian Parking Convention (www.apc2010.com.au). One of the program highlights will be a debate regarding the issue of congestion and parking management - read more about this in the APC debate flyer, available here.