BIKE: High Cost of Free Parking

[Jeb Boyt]

High Cost of Free Parking
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2418

“Free parking,” it’s a lovely phrase, isn’t it? Since so many of the things 
we do are not free, it’s great that at least we can stow our vehicles at no 
cost, right? Well, actually, we are paying dearly for parking, according to 
a new book by David Shoup, a professor at UCLA. In The High Cost of Free 
Parking, Shoup says that parking policies are devastating American cities, 
and that we’re wasting billions every year on parking subsidies that should 
go to parks and other human-scale activities.

Shoup points out that auto commuters enjoy a free ride, and that a lot of 
our excess capacity goes begging. An Urban Land Institute survey shows that 
at least half of all spaces are vacant more than 40 percent of the time the 
businesses they serve are open.

“Free curb parking may be the most costly subsidy American cities provide to 
their citizens,” says Shoup, who points out that the average car is parked 
95 percent of the time. As everyone who’s ever cruised a city street knows, 
it’s a lot cheaper to park on the street than in a private lot. Shoup says a 
2003 study found that the average price of curb parking is only 20 percent 
that of adjacent off-street parking, giving motorists an incentive to 
endlessly circle the public thoroughfares in search of an unoccupied space 
(wasting gas and causing congestion in the process).

. . .

A Canadian study by Auto-Free Ottawa has some devastating parking 
statistics. Some 86 percent of the American workforce commutes to work by 
car, and more than 90 percent of those commuters park for free. The average 
national value for a parking space is approximately $1,000, so that means 
$85 billion in annual subsidies. Ending these free subsidies would reduce 
the number of solo commuters by as much as 81 percent. And if ending the 
free ride is not a possibility, why can’t we offer people who take public 
transit or bike to work a similar subsidy—payments in lieu of parking?

Shoup believes that parking “ought to be priced properly,” and that means 
charging the lowest price that will result in a 15 percent vacancy rate, 
about equivalent to the market rate for a private lot space. If drivers 
aren’t circling the block looking for free parking, there will be less 
congestion and cleaner air, and the increased revenues can go into city 
beautification.

Shoup cites Pasadena as a model for good parking policy. Each parking meter 
in Old Pasadena generates $1,800 per year, with the money going to 
neighborhood improvement. San Diego returned 45 percent of its $2.2 million 
2002 meter revenues to neighborhoods, and the money was used to clean and 
light streets, repair sidewalks, remove graffiti, plant trees and provide 
security.

We never tally the hidden cost of driving. Americans spend $200 million a 
day building and rebuilding the country’s roads (and pork barrel projects in 
local districts mean this is the one thing Congress agrees on). Gas taxes 
and user fees cover only 60 percent of the more than $30 billion spent 
annually. Add on another $68 billion annually for highway patrols, traffic 
management and accident-related policework. The estimated annual external 
cost of driving (including air pollution, climate change, imported oil 
security, congestion, accidents, noise, etc.) is $126.3 billion.

. . .

As Americans, we’re leading the world in parking lots, providing between 
three and four spaces for every car in the country (between 705 million and 
940 million spaces in total). Combined, parking takes up as much space as 
the state of Connecticut.