"Free Parking is a fertility drug for cars"

This quote, attributed to Donald Shoup, was logged in the comments to an LA Streetsblog post about a Los Angeles City Council resolution advocating free parking to "the highest tech and cleanest cars".  This follows the termination earlier this year of a program that provided HOV exemption stickers to any hybrid vehicles. 

LA is home to Shoup, a UCLA professor of Urban Planning and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking.  Shoup's strategies have been implemented most notably in Santa Monica and San Francisco. He calls for the elimination of building codes that require free parking to ensure that spots are available to those willing to pay, thus ending the pattern of drivers circling a neighborhood multiple times in search of a spot. 

The intent of the LA City Council resolution, to encourage the use of fuel efficient vehicles, seems desirable to manufacturers like Tesla and Toyota.  Beyond purchase decisions by those with the means to consider a pricey electric vehicle, behavioral change from such a resolution seems unlikely.  As Shoup has shown through decades of research and writing, the cost of parking heavily influences transportation decisions.  Far too often parking costs are artificially dampened by regulations and building codes.  Legislation to cap or eliminate fees adds another layer hiding the true cost of parking and such layers tend to be much harder to remove than to apply.