Remembering Donald Shoup (1938-2025)
Professor Donald Shoup passed away on February 6, 2025. Among many other significant achievements and honors he was a founding Advisory Board member of PRN.
Donald’s curiosity, intelligence, passion, generosity, and kindness allowed him not only to expose the critical problems with modern parking policy, but also to ignite and nurture a movement to change them and make the world a better place.
The Parking Reform Network wishes to provide our community with a place to share their stories and thoughts to remember and honor Donald.
Professor Shoup was a donor, member, and booster of PRN’s work. If you are so moved, you can honor his legacy and support the parking reform movement with a memorial donation.
I was fortunate to serve as assistant editor of The High Cost of Free Parking, which was published by the American Planning Association where I worked as planning researcher. Don Shoup's central thesis was so rooted in the obvious yet such an eye opener at the same time. Early in my career at APA I answered questions from planners in the field, many of whom were asking for minimum parking requirements. It bothered me that the ITE parking studies data was so inadequate but, so often, planners just needed a number--anything to go on. The High Cost of Free Parking made me realize I was part of the problem by perpetuating bad data that led to the crisis of overparking. I'm a zoning consultant now and I work hard with every city and county client to slash or eliminate requirements. Thank you, Don Shoup, for the reckoning!