With UCLA professor Donald Shoup continuing to garner further exposure for his ideas around the perils of free parking and what it costs residents of cities across the US, the merits of parking spot ownership also continue to gather steam.
In a recent NY Times article, Shoup states that 99% of automobile trips end in a free parking space. The law of averages is no doubt in play here, as Boston has little to no free parking if you consider neighborhood resident parking areas “paid” parking. The South End neighborhood is a good example of Boston’s lack of free parking spaces, where perhaps the only free parking available is on Columbus Avenue in between Massachusetts Avenue and Dartmouth Street. Residents and visitors alike in this area circle Columbus Avenue like hawks pouching on available spots, only to many times leave cars sitting until they must be moved several days later for street sweeping.
Beacon Hill, similar in nature, is made up almost entirely of resident parking spaces, and the significant demand, outstripping supply by leaps and bounds, has continued to push up average resale parking space prices at the exclusive Brimmer Street Garage to approximately $250,000 per space.
The heart of this topic is the concept that the availability of free parking spaces propagates the use and possession of cars, driving, congestion, and pollution. Shoup suggests that a free parking space is in essence a subsidy. The trend towards decreasing congestion and cars in city centers, and increasing the use of public transportation, is not new. London serves as a great example of a city that has taken significant and proactive steps to curb automobile use in its city center through the use of economic means, a traffic congestion charge.
These trends place increasing amounts of wood behind the arrow of Boston parking spot ownership. An increasing number of investors and analysts are digging deeper into the concept of leveraging Boston parking spaces as investment vehicles by assembling a portfolio of income producing parking spots. Boston has been ahead of the curve in this realm, and should the trends evangelized by Shoup continue to gain steam, the economics of supply and demand will move even further in favor of owning a parking space in downtown Boston.
Keith Munsell 
