09-16-2018, 04:31 PM
(09-16-2018, 12:17 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(09-11-2018, 01:49 PM)plam Wrote: ...
I've read that book and am currently reading Parking in the City.
How is it? I have (finally) finished the high cost of free parking, and am looking for the next book.
I started this book as a converted urbanist who already supported reduced parking requirements, transit, bike lanes, better urban form. I expected this book wouldn't really convince me of anything, but would provide more background. I was perhaps wrong. The author provides a compelling argument that free parking isn't just one concern of many for our cities, but possibly the biggest concern that urbanists should focus on. The author also provides a number of well thought out processes to politically palatable mechanisms for achieving goals of charging for parking and reducing parking minimums. Overall, even if you think you know what the book has to say already, it's still worth reading. That being said, the author provides so much evidence, that it would be nice if there were perhaps, a more concise version of the book presenting the same ideas.
I would highly recommend it as a book for reading. So much so, I am considering how or if I could buy it for the new city council and/or mayor after the election. The one issue is the length, it is such a long book; does anyone know of a shorter, more concise book that proposes the same ideas/arguments?
Yes. Happy to lend you the second book once I finish it.
Unlike The High Cost of Free Parking, this is a collection of book chapters by different authors. Sometimes it's a bit repetitive as many people make the same point (but often with different bodies of evidence). The first few chapters do serve as a condensed version of Shoup's main argument (and he writes that in the Foreword). There is only a bit of new argumentation in the second book (I think there's much more discussion of disabled placard abuse, for instance) but there even more empirical evidence.