UCLA ITS is proud to host the world’s leading research program into parking policy and planning — an understudied issue with a dramatic impact on transportation, land use, the economy, and the environment, particularly in car-heavy Southern California.

Since the publication of the seminal book “The High Cost of Free Parking” by distinguished research professor and ITS faculty fellow Donald Shoup, UCLA scholars (including students in the graduate parking course) have revolutionized how urban planners think about parking. The groundbreaking research produced in the ITS parking program has critical implications for policy efforts to combat housing scarcity, greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, and many other challenges.

Lead Scholars

Donald Shoup
Donald ShoupDistinguished Research Professor of Urban Planning
Michael Manville
Michael ManvilleAssociate Professor of Urban Planning
Juan Matute
Juan MatuteITS Deputy Director

Briefs, News, and Opinion

Hate Stadium Parking and Game-Day Traffic? An Idea.
CityLab — 2020

Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?
The New York Times — 2019

Parking Reform Will Save the City
CityLab — 2019

What We Fight About When We Fight About Parking
CityLab — 2019

Lose the Chalk, Officer: Court Finds Marking Tires of Parked Cars Unconstitutional
The New York Times — 2019

To make transit work, does LA need to make driving harder?
Curbed — 2019

Op-Ed: How L.A. can gain housing (and transit ridership) without infuriating the neighbors
LA Times — 2018

Converting Garages for Cars into Housing for People
Anne E. Brown, Vinit Mukhija, Donald Shoup — 2018

Video: Why We Should Be Paying More for Parking
The Guardian — 2018

Parking is Sexy Now. Thank Donald Shoup.
CityLab — 2018

Optimal Pricing of Public Parking Garages
Gregory Pierce, Hank Willson, Donald Shoup — 2018

California’s Love of Cars is Fueling Its Housing Crisis
Bloomberg — 2018

A Chance to Transform Urban Planning
The Economist — 2018

Video: The High Cost of Free Parking
Vox — 2017

The Hidden Cost of Bundled Parking
Gregory Pierce, C.J. Gabbe — 2017

Parking Benefit Districts in China
Donald Shoup, Quan Yuan, Xin Jiang — 2017

Podcast: Parking with Donald “Shoup Dogg” Shoup
Adam Ruins Everything — 2016

How Parking Requirements Hurt the Poor
Washington Post — 2016

How Do You Ease Traffic in Los Angeles? Make It Harder to Park
Los Angeles Times — 2016

Do Cities Have Too Much Parking?
Juan Matute, Mikhail Chester, Andrew M. Fraser, Ram Pendyala — 2016

A New Way to Park on the Street: Evaluating the Spring Street Parklets in Downtown Los Angeles
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Madeline Brozen, Robin Abad Ocubillo, Kevin Ocubillo — 2013

Selected Research Publications

Parking policy: The effects of residential minimum parking requirements in Seattle
C.J. Gabbe, Gregory Pierce, Gordon Clowers — 2020
Mounting evidence on the negative effects of parking requirements has caused some cities to reduce or eliminate them altogether. How are real estate developers responding to these municipal parking reforms? We look to Seattle.

Parking behaviour: Bundled parking and travel behavior in American cities
Michael Manville,  Miriam Pinksi— 2020
Bundled residential parking — parking whose price is included in the rent or purchase price of housing — has a serious impact on household vehicle ownership. What does the American Housing Survey show about public transit use within these households?

Learning from parking reforms in other cities
Donald Shoup — 2020
Parking problems are similar everywhere, and effective parking reform in certain cities can oftentimes be used in other cities. What can we learn from these novel parking reforms?

Transition costs and transportation reform: The case of SFpark
Michael Manville — 2018
San Francisco’s attempt to expand dynamic parking pricing, called SFpark, into unmetered streets received severe backlash. How can transportation revenue be properly used in order to reduce political opposition and implement beneficial policies?

Bundled Parking and Vehicle Ownership: Evidence from the American Housing Survey
Michael Manville — 2017
Bundled residential parking — parking whose price is included in the rent or purchase price of housing — has a serious impact on household vehicle ownership. What does the American Housing Survey show about its connection to vehicle-free and transit-adjacent households?

Charging for Parking to Finance Public Services
Donald Shoup, Quan Yuan, Xin Jiang — 2016
Many cities have two serious problems: Overcrowded on-street parking and undersupplied public services. Could charging market prices to manage on-street parking solve both?

Optimizing the Use of Public Garages: Pricing Parking by Demand
Gregory Pierce, Hank Willson, Donald Shoup — 2015
The way U.S. cities currently manage off-street parking structures largely ignores the logic of both economics and public benefits. How can cities maximize the benefits of parking assets, and what can be learned from San Francisco’s SFpark program?

Informal Parking Markets: Turning Problems Into Solutions
Donald Shoup (edited by Vinit Mukhija and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris) — 2014
Cities regulate every aspect of parking, using tools from time limits to zoning requirements. So what is the informal parking market, and how can it help improve public policy?

Parking Requirements and Housing Development
Michael Manville — 2013
Do zoning laws that require onsite parking spaces with every residential unit inhibit housing development in center cities, and make the housing that is built more uniform and more expensive?

Turning Housing Into Driving: Parking Requirements and Density in Los Angeles and New York
Michael Manville, Alex Beata, Donald Shoup — 2013
Cities frequently use residential minimum parking requirements to manage traffic. If parking requirements reduce congestion, are they doing so by reducing the densities of housing and people in an area, not the number of vehicles?

Recent Projects