Table of Contents
Acknowledgements xvii
Preface: A Progress Report on Parking Reforms xix
1 Set the Right Price for Curb Parking xx
2 Return Parking Revenue to Pay for Local Public Services xxviii
3 Remove Minimum Parking Requirements xxxi
A Quiet Revolution in Parking Policies xxxvii
1 The Twenty-First Century Parking Problem 1
The Car Explosion 4
The "Commons" Problem 7
Skewed Travel Choices 9
Cures That Kill 9
The Twenty-First Century Parking Solution 13
Part I Planning for Free Parking 19
2 Unnatural Selection 21
The Genesis of Parking Requirements 21
Huddled Masses Yearning to Park Free 22
Planning without Prices 23
Planning without Theory 25
First Strategy: Copy Other Cities 27
Second Strategy: Consult ITE Data 31
Five Easy Reforms 64
Conclusion: The Immaculate Conception of Parking Demand 65
3 The Pseudoscience of Planning for Parking 75
Three-Step Process 75
Circular Logic 84
Estimating Demand without Prices 87
Professional Confidence Trick 88
Planners in Denial 89
Parochial Policies 92
Mobility versus Proximity 93
Systemwide Effects of Parking Requirements 94
Parking Spaces Required for a Change of Land Use 97
Quantity versus Quality 101
Conclusion: An Elaborate Structure with No Foundation 111
4 An Analogy: Ancient Astronomy 119
A Parallel Universe 120
The Muddle Is the Message 121
The Twenty-First Century Parking Solution 13
5 A Great Planning Disaster 127
Bundled Parking and the Decision to Drive 128
Distorted Urban Form 129
Degraded Urban Design 136
Higher Housing Costs 141
Paralysis by Parking Requirements 153
Limits on Homeownership 157
Damage to the Urban Economy 157
Harm to the Central Business District 158
Harm to Low-Income Families 165
Price Discrimination 167
Prices and Preferences 169
Precedent Coagulates into Tradition 171
An Analogy: Bloodletting 173
Conclusion: First, Do No Harm 175
6 The Cost of Required Parking Spaces 185
How Much Does a Parking Space Cost? 185
Monthly Cost of a Parking Space 191
External Costs of a Parking Space 194
Conclusion: The High Cost of Required Parking Spaces 200
7 Putting the Cost of Free Parking in Perspective 205
Total Subsidy for Parking 205
Capital Cost of the Parking Supply 208
New Parking Spaces Compared with New Cars 210
Free Parking Compared with the Cost of Driving to Work 211
Parking Subsidies Compared with Congestion Tolls 215
Simple Arithmetic 217
Conclusion: A Great Planning Disaster 218
8 An Allegory: Minimum Telephone Requirements 225
9 Public Parking in Lieu of Private Parking 229
Benefits of In-Lieu Fees 231
Concerns about In-Lieu Fees 232
How Do Cities Set the In-Lieu Fees? 233
Why Pay the Fee rather than Provide the Parking? 236
The Impact Fees Implicit in Parking Requirements 237
Conclusion: The High Cost of Parking Requirements 246
10 Reduce Demand Rather than Increase Supply 251
Transit Passes in Lieu of Parking Spaces 251
Parking Cash Out in Lieu of Parking Spaces 262
Car Sharing 266
Policies Appropriate to Their Locations 267
Conclusion: Offer the Option to Reduce Parking Demand 267
Part II Cruising for Parking 273
11 Cruising 275
Cruising through the Twentieth Century 276
Detroit 279
Washington, D.C 280
New Haven and Waterbury 281
London 281
Paris 283
Freiburg 283
Jerusalem and Haifa 283
Cambridge 284
Cape Town 284
New York 285
San Francisco 288
Sydney 289
Cruising without Parking 289
Conclusion: A Century of Cruising 290
12 The Right Price for Curb Parking 295
Is Curb Parking a Public Good? 296
Time Limits 296
The Right Price 297
External Costs of Curb Parking 303
Demand-Responsive Prices 304
Can Prices Manage Curb Parking Demand? 307
Two Later Observations 314
Conclusion: Charge the Right Price for Curb Parking 315
13 Choosing to Cruise 321
To Cruise or to Pay 321
Equilibrium Search Time: An Example 323
The Wages of Cruising 324
Rent Seeking 329
Two Pricing Strategies 330
Elasticities 331
A Numerical Example 333
Complications 335
Is Cruising Rational? 339
The Role of Information 340
Conclusion: An Invitation to Cruise 342
14 California Cruising 347
Park-and-Visit Tests in Westwood Village 348
Cheaper Curb Parking Creates More Cruising 350
Cruising for a Year 351
Side Effects of Cruising 361
Solo Drivers More Likely to Cruise 362
Market Prices Can Attract More People 363
Wages of Cruising in Westwood Village 367
Perception versus Reality 367
Turning Wasted Time into Public Revenue 369
Conclusion: The High Cost of Cruising 369
Part III Cashing in on Curb Parking 377
15 Buying Time at the Curb 379
First Parking Meter 380
The Technology of Charging for Curb Parking 382
Not Technology but Politics 390
Conclusion: Honk if You Support Paid Parking 392
16 Turning Small Change into Big Changes 397
Parking Benefit Districts 397
A Logical Recipient: Business Improvement Districts 401
Pasadena: Your Meter Money Makes a Difference 403
San Diego: Turning Small Change into Big Changes 418
Conclusion: Cash Registers at the Curb 427
17 Taxing Foreigners Living Abroad 433
A Market in Curb Parking 434
Residential Parking Benefit Districts 435
Benefits of Parking Benefit Districts 453
Conclusion: Changing the Politics of Curb Parking 464
18 Let Prices Do the Planning 471
Space, Time, Money, and Parking 471
The Optimal Parking Space 473
Greed versus Sloth 474
Parking Duration and Vehicle Occupancy 475
The Invisible Hand 479
Classic Monocentric Models 480
Efficiency 483
Practicality 484
Enforcement 486
Banning Curb Parking 489
Where Would Jesus Park? 494
Removing Off-Street Parking Requirements 495
Conclusion: Prices Can Do the Planning 499
19 The Ideal Source of Local Public Revenue 505
Henry George's Proposal 505
Curb Parking Revenue Is Public Land Rent 508
Parking Requirements Act Like a Tax on Buildings 509
What Would Adam Smith Say about Charging for Parking? 512
Revenue Potential of Curb Parking 513
Division of Curb Parking Revenue 519
Similarity to Special Assessments 522
Property Values 523
An Analogy: Congestion Pricing 523
Appropriate Public Claimants 527
Parking Increment Finance 528
Equity 530
Opportunity Cost of Curb Parking 539
Economic Development 540
Monopoly, Free Parking, and Henry George 543
Conclusion: The Revenue Is under Our Cars 547
20 Unbundled Parking 559
Parking Costs Unbundled from Housing Costs 560
Parking Caps or Parking Prices 568
Effects of Unbundling on VMT and Vehicle Emissions 569
Objections to Unbundling 572
Conclusion: The High Cost of Bundled Parking 575
21 Time for a Paradigm Shift 579
Parking Requirements as a Paradigm 580
Retrofitting America 582
An Illustration: Advising the Mayor 583
A New Style of Planning 584
Part IV Conclusion 587
22 Changing the Future 589
Curb Parking as a Commons Problem 590
Enormous Parking Subsidies 591
Unintended Consequences 592
Enclosing the Commons 594
Public Property, Not Private Property 595
Commons, Anticommons, and the Liberal Commons 596
Public Property, but without Open Access 599
Other Commons Problems 600
Two Futures 601
Three Reforms 602
Appendix A The Practice of Parking Requirements 607
Three Steps in Setting a Parking Requirement 608
662 Land Uses 609
216 Bases 610
Convergence to the Golden Rule 612
Parking Requirements and Regional Culture 614
Parking Requirements and Parking Technology 614
What Went Wrong? 617
Appendix B Nationwide Transportation Surveys 621
Drivers Park Free for 99 Percent of All Automobile Trips 621
Cars Are Parked 95 Percent of the Time 624
Appendix C The Language of Parking 627
Appendix D The Calculus of Driving, Parking, and Walking 631
Elasticities 633
Complications 633
The Price of Time 635
Appendix E The Price of Land and the Cost of Parking 643
Break-Even Land Values 643
Land Banks 645
Cost of Complying with Parking Requirements 646
Appendix F People, Parking, and Cities 649
Share of Land in Streets and Parking 650
People and Land: Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco 653
Appendix G Converting Traffic Congestion into Cash 659
Use of the Toll Revenue 664
Estimates of the Toll Revenue 666
Income Distribution and Political Support 668
Appendix H The Vehicles of Nations 673
Afterword: Twenty-First Century Parking Reforms 683
1 Set the Right Price for Curb Parking 683
2 Return Parking Revenue to Pay for Local Public Services 693
3 Remove Minimum Parking Requirements 698
Conclusion 705
References 709
Index 741
