Parking policies shape cities in profound ways; they influence housing affordability, traffic congestion, pollution and urban design. Minimum parking requirements — the zoning ordinances that mandate fixed amounts of off-street parking with every new building — inflate housing costs by forcing developers to build spaces that may go unused. Underpriced street parking causes traffic congestion and inefficient use of curb space. Both policies increase the prevalence of free parking, which encourages car use and sprawl, incentivizing driving over public transit, biking and walking.

As more cities worldwide move to eliminate outdated parking mandates and rethink curb management, the new UCLA Center for Parking Policy will support policymakers navigating these complex reforms. Housed in the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, the new center draws on the university’s decades of research expertise in parking policy, a field that was pioneered by the late UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup.

“A wave of cities — Sacramento, Birmingham, Raleigh — have recently abolished their parking requirements. Dozens more are interested in following suit,” said Adam Millard-Ball, director of the institute. “The new center will help city staff and elected officials to understand the likely impacts on housing production, parking availability, and congestion, and to make informed, evidence-based decisions on parking reform.”

A longtime professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Shoup was no ordinary academic. While his research appeared in scholarly journals, he dedicated just as much — if not more — time to making his work accessible to a broad audience. Through op-eds, magazine articles, public talks and a few books, including the groundbreaking The High Cost of Free Parking, Shoup sparked a movement that is reshaping parking policy worldwide.

That long-term advocacy is paying off. Today, hundreds of cities and states around the world have reformed their parking policies to promote economic vitality, sustainability, and better urban design.

The center will be led by urban planning professors Millard-Ball and Michael Manville, both national experts on parking, land use and transportation policy. The center will bridge the gap between academic research and policy implementation. For new cities and states interested in tackling their parking policies, little guidance exists. The center will complement the work of advocacy organizations such as the Parking Reform Network, and serve as an independent source of information and technical assistance.

“In the spirit of Don Shoup, our center will emphasize the process of turning research into action,” Manville said. “The goal will be not to do cutting edge research — UCLA already does that — but to help cities around the world turn that research into policy, by making it practical and accessible.”

Among the center’s key focus areas:

• Translating complex research into plain-English research syntheses, policy briefs, toolkits and other materials that are useful to practitioners and policymakers.
• Documenting examples of cities and states that have implemented parking reforms in different geographical and political contexts.
• Identifying gaps in current parking research and helping shape the research agenda.
• Developing short courses for housing and transportation planners.

The parking center is set to launch summer 2025 with generous support from Arnold Ventures.

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