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Eye opener to me "The High Cost of Free Parking", Donald Shoup (book not the paper)

• nwah1 10y ago
  I second this recommendation. Car culture is hugely subsidized. It is arguably the largest social engineering project in world history, buttressed by endless amounts of regulation, zoning, and huge expenditure paid for by everyone, including non-drivers. It is certainly not a spontaneous outgrowth of the free market. We waste enormous amounts of prime land on trivial things, such as curbside parking. Mandatory minimum parking requirements impede new construction, and are a hidden subsidy to car culture. And simple concepts to improve efficiency and fairness, like smart parking meters and congestion pricing, are ignored. People hate the concept of paying so much, even though they will ultimately end up paying for it via queuing (congestion). It is interesting that much of what people actually hate about our economic system boils down to aspects of car culture. Atomization, sprawl, etc have many causes, but certainly car culture is one of them.