Feb 20 2025 - The King of Congestion

 

Donald Trump declared himself KING recently - in relation to ordering New York to stop its congestion fee system.  It doesn't seem possible to have two kings in the congestion world.  And that is not even considering Elon Musk. The real king of congestion and parking is Donald Shoup.  He is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking - 20 years ago - and he changed the urban parking landscape significantly.   He was a PhD and research economist at UCLA. He was inspired by a master's thesis that found that Los Angeles County employees were almost twice as likely to drive alone than federal employees in the Los Angeles Civic Centre.  Why?  It was free parking. Shoup had estimated that 700 million rot 2 billion parking spots existed in the U.S. - a ratio of 2.5 to 7 times as many parking spaces as registered vehicles.     His investigation and studies resulted in his theory that an 85% occupancy rate of on-street -parking spaces would be the most efficient use of public parking.  The expression "cruising for parking" was one of his findings - driving around to find the closest parking spot. Congestion was the result.  Parking cash-out was a solution he advocated.  As parking spaces are subsidized at work, he devised options for the employee the choice to keep the parking space, use the money to pay for transit or vanpool fares, or sae the money by carpooling, bicycling, etc.  He also advocated removing parking minimums for condos, etc.  These resulted in a bias towards owning cars and driving.  It was found that parking minimums failed to reduce or eliminate curb congestion and increased it. The expression of being the king of congestion comes with the full sentence that Donald Trump used.    "Long live the king" no longer can apply to Donald Shoup as he died a few weeks ago.   The declaration that Donald Trump actually made was:  LONG LIVE THE KING!   All upper case.  I looked it up and there's a name for that:  language intensity.  Surprise that this is meant to signal that something is important here and that there's intense emotion with the words.

This is the road to the Peninsula Ridge Winery restaurant.  The Kitchen House - a heritage site - is the actual focal point everyone knows.   The second picture shows  a different perspective with the road diagonally in front - and of course a spring view with the fruit trees in bloom.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca