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The High Cost of Free Parking

Slate has a nice column about Donald Shoup's pathbreaking book The High Cost of Free Parking, called "Why Parking Your Car Is More Environmentally Destructive Than Driving It."

Urban on-street parking is almost always underpriced, which is why you can almost never find a spot. In many cases, it would be better to have no on-street parking at all, freeing up that real estate for expanded homes, shops and cafes or additional driving lanes.

Clearly, the New York City administration could stand to read Shoup's book. A new study out illustrates much unnecesssary  parking and driving in New York, including this factoid:

The average cost of parking on-street at a meter is $1.73 compared with $21 to $27 (depending on duration) for off-street parking in the Manhattan central business district.