How free is your parking?

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as free parking. Providing parking requires land, and land requires revenue to pay for its rent. Basic economic theory would have developers providing parking up to the point where revenue raised by last the car park equals the value of the next best land use alternative.

Minimum Parking Requirements (MPRs), by definition, force developers to provide parking above this economically efficient level, which raises development costs, subsidizes private automobile transport over other modes such as walking, cycling and public transport, and provides incentives to develop at low densities, encouraging sprawl.

MPRs distort economic decisionmaking because they do not allow consumers or producers of parking to avoid the costs of parking by providing or consuming less. MPRs inhibit free and informed choice, and they exacerbate social/cultural inequities by redistributing wealth across transport demographics.

MPRs are included in most district plans in New Zealand, with the exceptions of Auckland and Wellington CBDs.

Julie Anne Genter is a transport planner at McCormick Rankin Cagney, Auckland

Stuart Donovan is a transport engineer at McCormick Rankin Cagney, Auckland

Tim Hazledine is Professor of Economics and Head of Department at the University of Auckland

Last year Julie presented a paper on this topic to the NZ Society for Sustainability Engineering and Science
http://www.nzsses.auckland.ac.nz/Conference/2008/papers/Genter.pdf

Stuart was recently featured in a Sunday Star Times focus article about Aucklands transport problems
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/2297289/Auckland-transport-...

Other links about parking policy:

Todd Litmans Parking Management report for the VTPI
http://www.vtpi.org/park_man.pdf

Professor Donald Shoups personal website
http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• minimum
• parking
• requirements
• transport
• planning
• land
• use
• policy

[isurudj]

I'm sorry, but I don't see things becoming more affordable or cheaper to other commuters just because drivers will be paying for parking. For example, bus fares are not going to get any cheaper. It's just another money-making scheme for the city council.

[mtadaki]

1) minimum parking requirements are a separate policy to charging for parking. your comment makes no sense if you are actually commenting on the video.

2) if you are referring to the auck city councils move to charge for parking from 6-10pm, i suggest you read the debates on the facebook protest group page.

the policy of removing minimum parking requirements for FUTURE developments is fundamentally different to making people pay for existing parking.

dont mix them up.

[yeedoggmail]

If developers only provide parking based on land use value, doesn't that simply push the cost of lost productivity due to the lack of immediate available parking (since car park utilisation can be quite variable) to the general public? The video showed the footage of a Placemaker's store at one point - who would pay for the builder trying to find parking on an busy day?

[gregbodnar]

@getnick77 You may find examples of affluence correlating to transport behaviour, but counter-examples also exist. Your argument is based on the culture you see, which not only changes over time, but can be influenced by policy. Sorry dude, but I consider your free parking to be subsidized also - parking that I don't use and don't want. Why am I paying for you to park?

[getnick77]

this is typical of a lot of well educated people over thinking a non-problem, what about the fact that people who drive cars are more affluent as a rule than people who walk or take buses and therefore pay more in taxes, including subsidizing public transportation that they don't use and bike trails they don't use.

[dimvoly]

video needs flash visualization presentations thrown in, like the video "the crisis of credit visualized".

its pretty informative anyway. Good work.

[boday07]

Got me thinking!!

[iiinsight]

great video! shouldn't this brilliant woman have a leadership position in government?

[pschmied1]

It seems pretty basic, but getting the word out about minimum parking requirements is enormously valuable. Thanks for the video, guys! As more communities move toward priced car parking, we should start to see more data which corroborates Shoup's analysis.