Chicagoans saw the cost of downtown parking meters go up in January and we expect this hike will lead many to explore other modes of transportation. Last summer’s gas price spike caused the same thing to happen: Americans drove about 100 billion fewer miles from November 2007 to November 2008, according to AAA. Not coincidentally, the number of traffic fatalities sharply fell by about 10 percent in 2008.
The Active Transportation Alliance’s vision for the Chicago metropolitan region is one with 50 percent fewer crashes and where half of all trips are made by walking, biking, and mass transit. We are a powerhouse when it comes to enabling communities to experiment with such alternatives. But if we want to see total success, we must also build support around policies that reduce driving accessibility.
There is no such thing as a free lunch and there is no such thing as free parking.
Indeed, free or low-cost parking encourages more driving, which results in congestion and more crashes, according to Donald Shoup, an urban planning professor at University of California-Los Angeles and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking.
In fact, the full price of parking -- from the spatial value to the resulting cost of crashes -- is unfairly absorbed by those who can’t afford to drive or choose not to do so. Shoup suggests that charging fair-market prices for parking would reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled, and would increase carpool trips, off-peak travel, and bicycling, walking, and mass transit use.
