Any development or plan in California that includes parking these days -- and that means pretty much every plan -- probably includes less parking than it would have a generation ago. That means it owes a debt to Prof. Donald Shoup. 

Most famous for his 2005 book The High Cost of Free Parking, Shoup famously inspired planners, developers, and even everyday fans to reconsider the amount of parking that cities need and the price that drivers should pay (or not pay) for it. It's no wonder that the scholar who revolutionized the field of parking was based in California -- a land famous for auto-dependency and, by extension, parking-dependancy. Much of Shoup's field research took place in Westwood, right next to UCLA, where he taught for five decades. Just like the drive-through burger stand and the urban freeway, parking reform was a homegrown California product.  

Prof. Shoup passed away Feb. 6 at the age of 86. CP&DR asked planners from California and elsewhere to share their thoughts on Don Shoup's passing.

"I used to joke that my three greatest achievements as Mayor of Pasadena were, first, the adoption of our transit-oriented General Plan; third, putting parking meters in Old Pasadena, and second, not getting thrown out of office for putting parking meters in Old Pasadena. Dr. Shoup drew on that ultimately successful experiment to give intellectual heft and devise a comprehensive theory of change. No urban scholar in our time has had more practical effect on rethinking and reshaping how policy shapes the built form of our cities. He single-handedly sparked a revolution by challenging the conventional wisdom of voodoo traffic science. What's particularly endearing is that he did it with curiosity, humor and an impish disdain for pomposity."

Rick Cole, former Mayor and current Councilmember, City of Pasadena

Don Shoup was a true giant of our field. He is known for how he revolutionized our understanding of parking. But he also revolutionized the way we understand neighborhoods and entire cities. He will be missed, but his ideas and intellect will live on.

Richard Florida, author, The Rise of the Creative Class

"Don Shoup was already 67 when The High Cost of Free Parking was released; a late bloomer, like Cézanne. The book made his name. In addition to dismantling many precepts of urban planning, it is laugh-out-loud funny and swimming in delightful anecdotes and unforgettable metaphors, qualities that owed much to Shoup’s relentless revisions, under the guidance of many students and the editorial expertise of his wife Pat."
 
"Perhaps it was because he found fame late in life that Don was humble about his breakthrough and so helpful to everyone who came calling. His favorite bon mot about the field he founded—“I’m a bottom feeder, but there’s a lot of food down there”—always struck me as charmingly self-effacing, given his impact, but for a while, maybe it felt like a defense of an unloved pursuit."
 
"Ideas are only any good if there are people to put them into practice. In Don’s case, he inspired ... an entire professional network dedicated to the perpetuation of his discoveries. We should all be so lucky, when our time on the meter runs out, to leave a legacy like his."

Henry Grabar, author, Paved Paradise (reprinted with permission from his Substack, The Ground Floor)

"One thing that always impressed me about Donald Shoup was his remarkable messaging discipline. When protesters and counter-protesters took over UCLA campus in response to the Israel-Palestine conflict, I asked him for his take on the whole thing. He didn't miss a beat: 'I'm just wondering where they all parked.'"

Nolan Gray, Policy Director, California YIMBY; Author, Arbitrary Lines

"Professor Shoup was very kind, helpful and enthusiastic as we pursued parking reform in the California State Legislature with then-Assemblymember Laura Friedman in 2021 and 2022. The legislation ultimately eliminated minimum parking requirements for developments within one-half mile of a major transit stop. As the bill moved through the legislative process, he tasked his students with tracking, analyzing and identifying preferred amendments to it."

Michael Lane, State Policy Director, SPUR

"Right until the end of his life, Don still came to his office most days, taught his popular course on parking policy for graduate and undergraduate students every year, wrote and published papers, and regularly met with and mentored the many current students who shared his interests. Few scholars have had the real world impact on planning practice that Don did. His work on parking policy launched a formidable reform movement that only continues to gather steam. His research has quite literally changed cities." 
 
"Don was a genial and mischievous person, who enjoyed teaching, chatting (sometimes gossiping) with people in hallways, and buttonholing colleagues to talk about research (usually parking research). He had a contagious curiosity that made him a model for his students, myself included."

Michael Manville, Chair of Urban Planning, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

"One day I realized I really needed some computer gizmo and the only place to get it was the Apple Store in Pasadena that I could hit on my way home to Altadena. Trouble is that they closed at 6 and it was already 5:05 and I was on the USC campus south of DTLA. This was near impossible at rush hour, of course, but there was hope. Don Shoup's new parking scheme had been implemented. Rather than cruise around the area, find a place and then run blocks to the closing store, would I get lucky? You betcha, right in front, and the day was saved! Fairly or not, I always credited Don Shoup for this small victory."

I will continue to hold Don Shoup up as a model to my grad students. He found his blinding insight about the overlooked but central importance of parking, and he battled back against the entrenched forces of professional tradition (the planners, engineers and merchants). Nothing as glamorous as Frank Gehry, these parking lots and garages, but way more important to the making of better city life. Shoup stayed on message a long time (decades!) and finally the light dawned on the rest of us.

Dowell Myers, Professor, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy

"Back in 2010, I wrote an article about the Shoupian revolution for InTransition Magazine. When I interviewed Prof. Shoup, I referred to having read The High Cost of Free Parking. Only slightly horrified at the thought of anyone reading hundreds of pages of economic analysis, he replied, 'You read the whole thing?!' I admitted that I had skimmed it, which made him feel better."
 
"Prof. Shoup's good humor was not just a fun foible. It surely contributed to his influence. Planning can be dry sometimes (as evidenced by his own book) and Prof. Shoup made complex, appealing ideas all the more appealing through his candor and good humor. Even as planners fight against parking minimums using Prof. Shoup's calculations, they would also do well to follow his personal example."

Josh Stephens, Contributing Editor, CP&DR