Wiki Wednesday: A Weekly Dose of Livable Streets Knowledge

donald-shoup.jpgToday we’re launching a new feature on Streetsblog — Wiki Wednesdays — where we’ll highlight new content coming online at StreetsWiki, the community-created livable streets knowledge base.

The inaugural entry is the bio-in-progress on UCLA professor Donald Shoup (right). Earlier this week, Zane Selvans (member of the Livable Streets Network since June 16) helped flesh out some details about how Shoup’s theories on parking policy have been applied in California: 

Prof. Shoup helped draft California’s "Parking Cash Out" Law,
requiring employers who provide free parking to their employees to
offer comparable transportation subsidies to employees who do not
drive. He also worked with the City of Pasadena, California to develop
the dynamic market based parking pricing scheme used in Old Pasadena
and other business districts, to pay for infrastructure improvements
and maintain a constant supply of on-street parking spaces.

Shoup is known especially for his criticism of free
parking, and the consequences that it has on transportation decisions,
as detailed in his book The High Cost of Free Parking.

With New York City DOT about to test out Shoup’s ideas in two pilot areas, and Transportation Alternatives calling for further reform of parking management — following the lead of Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington DC — this StreetsWiki entry is ripe for expansion.

If Shoup’s not up your alley, to start a new entry, sign up and drop some knowledge.

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Donald Shoup, an Appreciation

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On Tuesday, the news came that after 41 years of teaching at UCLA, Donald Shoup, distinguished professor of urban planning, will retire. For all of us who have had our paths in life profoundly influenced by his research, writing, and teaching on parking and transportation, it’s a good time to reflect. I never got to […]

Tonight: See the Blueprint for a New Upper West Side

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Streets designed for safe, accessible, and equitable use. That is the vision of the "Blueprint for the Upper West Side: A Roadmap for Truly Livable Streets," to be unveiled tonight by the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance Campaign. The product of one year of community-driven planning, in consultation with urbanist legends Jan Gehl and Donald […]
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Americans Can’t Afford the High Cost of Parking Requirements

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Building a single parking spot can easily cost more than many Americans’ life savings. In the latest issue of Access Magazine, retired UCLA economist Donald Shoup brings this point home to illustrate the huge financial burden imposed by minimum parking requirements, especially for poor households. The average construction cost of structured parking, across 12 American cities, is $24,000 for an above-ground […]

This Week: Streetfilms, 34th Street, Shoup

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DC to Devote Parking Fees to Livable Streets

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  In a first for a big east coast city, Washington, DC, is putting the ideas of celebrated parking reformer Don Shoup to work. Spurred by concerns over game day traffic surges caused by the opening of a new baseball stadium, the city council recently created two performance parking pilot project zones. The most important […]