> _Journal of Planning Education and Research_ 17, 1 (1997)
>
> The High Cost of Free Parking
>
> Donald C. Shoup
>
> Urban planners typically set minimum parking requirements to meet the
> peak demand for parking at each land use, without considering either
> the
> price motorists pay for parking or the cost of providing the required
> parking spaces. By reducing the market price of parking, minimum
> parking
> requirements provide subsidies that inflate parking demand, and this
> inflated demand is then used to set minimum parking requirements. When
>
> considered as an impact fee, minimum parking requirements can increase
>
> development costs by more than 10 times the impact fees for all other
> public purposes combined. Eliminating minimum parking requirements
> would reduce the cost of urban development, improve urban design,
> reduce
> automobile dependency, and restrain urban sprawl.
>Kenton Bird, Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Journalism & Technical Communication
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1785
Voice: (970) 491-5986 Fax: (970) 491-2908
E-mail: KBird@vines.colostate.edu