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Donald Shoup

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Donald Shoup
A grey-bearded man at home wearing a wired headset staring directly into the camera, as if on a remote meeting.
Shoup in 2025
BornAugust 24, 1938
Long Beach, California, U.S
Died
February 6, 2025
OccupationUrban planner
Years active1968–2025
Known foradvocating against parking requirements in cities
Notable workThe High Cost of Free Parking

Donald Curran Shoup (August 24, 1938 – February 6, 2025) was an American engineer and professor in urban planning. He was a research professor of urban planning at University of California, Los Angeles and a noted Georgist[1] economist. His 2005 book The High Cost of Free Parking identifies the negative repercussions of off-street parking requirements[2] and relies heavily on 'Georgist' insights about optimal land use and rent distribution.[3] In 2015, the American Planning Association awarded Shoup the "National Planning Excellence Award for a Planning Pioneer."[4]

Costs of Congestion and Parking Search

Life and career

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Shoup was born in Long Beach, California, on August 24, 1938.[5] When he was two years old, his family moved to Hawaii for his father's work in the U.S. Navy.[6] He arrived in New Haven, Connecticut, in the late 1950s at the peak of New Haven Mayor Richard C. Lee's efforts to build major parking garages and improve city traffic flow with the Oak Street Connector and other urban renewal projects.[citation needed]

He received undergraduate degrees from Yale College in electrical engineering and economics, and a doctorate in economics from Yale in 1968.[7] After completing his PhD he headed west, assuming a post as research economist at UCLA's Institute for Government and Public Affairs.[8] After a four-year stint as a professor at the University of Michigan, Shoup returned to UCLA as an Associate Professor of Urban Planning in 1974, and later was awarded a full professorship in 1980.[8]

Shoup died on February 6, 2025, at the age of 86.[9][10]

Parking

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Originally focused on public finance and land value tax theory, in 1975 Shoup was inspired by a master's thesis that found that Los Angeles County employees were almost twice as likely to drive alone than federal employees in the Los Angeles Civic Center due to the availability of free parking.[11] Shoup extensively studied parking as a key link between transportation and land use, with important consequences for cities, the economy, and the environment. In a 2004 paper titled The Ideal Source of Local Public Revenue, Shoup argued for the application of Georgist tax theory to urban parking and transportation issues.[12]

Shoup popularized the theory that an 85% occupancy rate of on-street parking spaces would be the most efficient use of public parking.[13] When cars at any given destination in a city (a block or group of blocks) occupy more than 85% of on-street parking spaces, then cars arriving at that destination are forced to circle the block for a few minutes in order to find an unoccupied parking space. This small search time per car creates a surprisingly large amount of traffic congestion because, typically, many cars are searching for parking simultaneously during peak driving times. This wastes time and fuel and increases air pollution. Shoup called this phenomenon of excess driving resulting from under-priced parking "cruising for parking".[citation needed]

His research on employer-paid parking led to the passage of California's parking cash-out law,[14] and to changes in the Internal Revenue Code to encourage parking cash out. His research on municipal parking policies has led numerous cities throughout the United States to change the price of curb parking and to dedicate the resulting parking meter revenue to finance added public services in the metered districts. Shoup has also been cited as inspiring many cities throughout the United States to lessen and eliminate parking minimums.[15] In addition, Shoup himself also personally engaged with municipalities to try and change their parking policies.[16]

Shoup was a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and served as Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies and as Chair of the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. He served as a visiting scholar at the University of Hawaii, Cambridge University, and the World Bank.[8] Shoup also served on the advisory board of the Parking Reform Network.[17]

Bibliography

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Books

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  • Shoup, Donald and Ruth P. Mack. Advance land acquisition by local governments: benefit-cost analysis as an aid to policy (1968). Institute of Public Administration.
  • Shoup, Donald and Don Pickerell. Free Parking as a Transportation Problem. (1980). U.S. Department of Transportation
  • ——. Evaluating the Effects of Parking Cash Out: Eight Case Studies. (1997) California Environmental Protection Agency.
  • ——. Parking Cash Out. (2005). APA Planning Advisory Service.
  • Shoup, Donald. The High Cost of Free Parking. (2005) APA Planners Press. ISBN 978-1884829987 (Revised 2011. ISBN 978-1932364965)
  • Shoup, Donald (editor). Parking and the City. (2018) Routledge. ISBN 978-113849703-0.

Selected articles

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  • Shoup, Donald. "The optimal timing of urban land development." (1970). Papers in Regional Science 25(1), 33–44.
  • Shoup, Donald, with Ronald Wilson. "Parking subsidies and travel choices: assessing the evidence." (1990). Transportation 17 (2), 141–157
  • Shoup, Donald. "Cashing out free parking." (1982). Transportation Quarterly 36(3)
  • "An opportunity to reduce minimum parking requirements." (1995). Journal of the American Planning Association 61(1), 14–28.
  • "In lieu of required parking." (1999). Journal of Planning Education and Research 18(4), 307–320.
  • "The trouble with minimum parking requirements." (1999). Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 33(7), 549–574.
  • "Cruising for parking." (2006). Transport Policy 13(6), 479–486.

References

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  1. ^ Knack, Ruth Eckdish. "Pay As You Park: UCLA professor Donald Shoup inspires a passion for parking". No. May 2005. Planning Magazine. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  2. ^ Hartocollis, Anemona (March 27, 2005). "No Parking. You're Welcome". The New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2009.
  3. ^ Washington, Emily. "The High Cost of Free Parking Chapters 19–22". marketurbanism.com. Market Urbanism. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  4. ^ "Donald Shoup, FAICP". www.planning.org. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  5. ^ Press, Jaques Cattell (January 1, 1974). American Men and Women of Science: Urban community sciences. R. R. Bowker Co. p. 297. ISBN 9780835207577.
  6. ^ Groves, Martha (October 16, 2010). "He puts parking in its place". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  7. ^ "Faculty biography". University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c Shoup, Donald. "Curriculum vitae" (PDF). University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  9. ^ "Remembering Donald Shoup (1938-2025)". Parking Reform Network. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  10. ^ Newton, Damien; Curry, Melanie. "Streetsblog Mourns the Passing of Donald Shoup". California Streetsblog. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  11. ^ Gardetta, Dave (December 1, 2011). "Between the Lines". LA Magazine. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  12. ^ Shoup, Donald C. "The Ideal Source of Local Public Revenue." Regional Science and Urban Economics 34.6 (2004): 753–84.
  13. ^ Gordon, Rachel (July 27, 2010). "High-tech parking meters premiere in S.F." San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
  14. ^ "California's Parking Cash-Out Law".
  15. ^ Steuteville, Robert (March 8, 2023). "Parking is a national policy issue, thanks to Donald Shoup". CNU. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  16. ^ Barfield, Chet (March 22, 2007). "Proposed parking fees find few fans". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  17. ^ "About us". Parking Reform Network. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
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