Ultimately, we’re all paying for parking now, even if we don’t drive, and no matter what our incomes are, and poor people are paying more of their overall income toward parking — they just can’t see it, because the cost is wrapped up inside the cost of everything else: groceries, housing, etc.

You might be interested to look at SB 518 which recently passed through the CA senate (still has to go to the Assembly though), and which would go a long way toward making parking prices visible across the state.

It’s inspiring to see so many people concerned about parking across the country and seeking solutions for driving reduction, and I appreciate the specifics that you provide for Caltech. That’s a lot of subsidy per parking space. My city currently spends $5,000 per surfacing parking space construction, and $28,000 per garage space.

My big concerns with Shoup’s ideas have to do with equity and social justice. In a dense urbanized area, where there’s better transit and there are many people living within easy walking distance of many goods, services and job opportunities, equity issues diminish. In a more suburban or rural area, such as mine, with less transit, equity between taking the bus or biking, vs. driving, becomes a serious issue. If low-income people are disproportionately pushed out of cars and onto transit or bikes, not only can it be a real hardship, but even if there is good transit, having one economic class on transit, and another in cars creates a separate, and inherently unequal, condition.

One other consideration for the moment: people who cannot afford the full cost of parking may not necessarily own fewer cars. They might live in a one-car household (say, a single person) and need to keep the car, or live in a multi-car household, but need the additional car(s) for errands while the other drivers have their cars at work. I’ve noticed as well among bus riders in my city that among one-car couples, it is almost always the woman who takes the bus daily while her husband drives, resulting in serious equity, independence, and sometimes safety issues for her.

Shoup’s ideas should be studied from the perspectives of low-income people, in various cities, to gather their various views on the cost of parking go way up.

Thanks again for your helpful post.

Some relief to Caltech’s past parking problems could have been obtained by removing the impractical 2hr parking restrictions, rather than more strickly enforcing them. Additionally, if
employees were allowed to park in the San Marino streets adjacent to Caltech (that are totally barren) additional parking bulidings would not have been required. Using these streets would have made better use of miles of empty roads. Indeed, opening these streets would have actually encouraged people to walk a little further.
The reasons parking restrictions near the San Marino mansions is clear to all and clearly has very little to do with public safetly or congestion.

In response, Stanford provides incentives for their students, faculty and staff to get to and from work without their cars. The percentage that drive to work alone has dropped from 72 percent in 2002 to 52 percent in 2007.