UB Professor Honors Planning Pioneer and Mentor with “The Shoup Doctrine”

Fast forward to today, Hess—now a professor in UB’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning—is celebrating the launch of “The Shoup Doctrine: Essays Celebrating Donald Shoup and Parking Reforms,” a collection of essays edited by Hess that honor Shoup’s influential legacy.

“He basically invented the field of parking research,” Hess explained. “Why parking has distorted prices, why it’s inefficient, the effects of big ugly parking lots on cities. He started back in the ‘70s when nobody was listening. By the early 2000s, he was still doing the same thing, but now people were finally paying attention.” In recognition of this work, Shoup received national acclaim in 2015 when the American Planning Association honored him with the “National Planning Excellence Award for a Planning Pioneer.”

In 2010, Shoup was named the Will and Nan Clarkson Visiting Chair at the UB School of Architecture and Planning. That year, he spent a full week in residence, leading a series of public lectures and seminars for both the university community and local planning practitioners. In his well-attended keynote lecture, he spoke about parking reform, highlighting promising opportunities for Buffalo’s urban landscape, and signed copies of his influential book, “The High Cost of Free Parking,” for attendees. 

“The Shoup Doctrine” is already proving useful in the classroom. This semester, Hess is using it in his undergraduate course, “Transportation and Urban Life,” which introduces students to the history, function, and future potential of urban transportation systems. “Anytime you’re talking about planning or developing a new site, which is everything we do in this school—architecture, urban planning, real estate development—parking is part of it,” Hess noted. “Parking is an important topic in all these conversations. Do we really need so much? Can we make it better? Can we make it more accessible?” All of these ideas are captured in the book.

When Hess first proposed the idea two years ago, Shoup wasn’t immediately on board. “He said no,” Hess explained with a laugh. “He was very modest.” But with some more convincing, Shoup warmed to the idea of a book that celebrated both parking reform and his contributions to the topic.

The result is a 33-chapter anthology featuring essays by 37 contributors, including professors, researchers, city planners, and parking professionals—many of whom were former students of Shoup. The contributor list was developed collaboratively by Hess and Shoup, but Hess took the lead on bringing the project to life. He reached out to potential authors, guided the development of their essays to fit the book’s overarching themes, and led the editing process to ensure a cohesive and compelling final product.

However, once he was finished with each chapter, he then handed it over to Shoup for final edits. “He loved to edit,” Hess reminisced. “I learned so much about him from writing and editing.”

The essays in “The Shoup Doctrine” reflect on three major parking reforms proposed by Shoup during his career:

Repeal of minimum parking requirements. Throughout most of the U.S., these requirements mandate a fixed minimum number of parking spaces for businesses and residential buildings. This has led to an overabundance of parking lots, many of which sit half-empty, reducing walkability, creating visual blight, and driving up costs for consumers through higher prices or rent to cover parking maintenance. Shoup challenged this decades-old norm, advocating for its elimination, instead allowing market demand to determine parking needs. Notably, the city of Buffalo abolished minimum parking requirements in 2017 under the Green Code.

Raising the cost of curb parking. Shoup argued that the ideal curbside parking occupancy rate is 85%. When occupancy climbs higher, drivers circle the block in search of a spot (“cruising”), leading to traffic congestion, wasted fuel, and a higher risk of accidents. He proposed adjusting curbside parking prices based on demand. When spaces become scarce, raising the cost encourages turnover and ensures that spots remain available, improving both traffic flow and urban livability.

Reinvesting parking fees back into the community. Whether collected from meters, mobile apps, or residential parking permits, these funds can be used to enhance public spaces through measures like improved sidewalks, better street lighting, more trees, public art, and other amenities that make communities more vibrant and walkable. By tying parking fees to visible local improvements, cities can build public support for smarter parking policies. 

Hess believes that any city is capable of embracing parking reform—with the right messaging. “You might have to communicate to people that there will be fewer parking spaces or that they might be charged for parking where it used to be free. Nobody likes that,” he admitted. “But if we can show people the benefits—there’s less traffic and cruising, people are more likely to easily find parking, there are neighborhood improvements funded through parking revenues—people will understand that high parking prices have real benefits.”

As residents and users of public spaces, Hess argues that everyone has something to learn from reading “The Shoup Doctrine.” “I think if people consider the parking policies that we have in our cities and maybe have some new insights after connecting with the book, they may see that there’s a better way to manage urban parking policies.”

Sadly, Donald Shoup passed away in February at the age of 86, just months before the book’s release. “I definitely thought I would be celebrating the book with him,” Hess reflected. “But I’m glad that I started this book project when I did. And now we can celebrate Professor Shoup through this book.” That celebration began on October 3 at UCLA, where the book launch coincided with a memorial honoring Shoup’s life and legacy.

Fittingly, Shoup has the final word in “The Shoup Doctrine,” contributing an Afterword that blends humor with heartfelt reflection. He pokes fun at his passion for parking, noting that his 750-page book The High Cost of Free Parking resembled “an extravagant parody of academic dullness”—a nod to the skepticism he faced for championing a topic many considered mundane. Yet Shoup acknowledged the rise of his career, those who supported him along the way, and the contributors who made “The Shoup Doctrine” a reality.

“It’s OK to be a late bloomer if you make it to the flower show, and Daniel Hess has arranged the best flower show any late-blooming academic could ever have,” Shoup wrote. “He has given me the unique privilege of reading (and editing) 33 eulogies before I go.”

Contributors to “The Shoup Doctrine” include: Laurence Albert Bannerman, Evelyn Blumenberg, Leah M. Bojo, Ann Cheng, Shawn Conrad, Alex Demisch, Julie Dixon, Scott Ebbett, Suwei (Susan) Feng, William Fulton, Norman W. Garrick, Catie Gould, M. Nolan Gray, Susan Handy, Daniel Baldwin Hess, Evan Iacobucci, Eren Inci, Maria Irshad, Tony Jordan, Clarisse Cunha Linke, Michael Manville, Malcolm McCracken, Adam Millard-Ball, Isaiah Mouw, Dorina Pojani, Bernardo Baranda Sepúlveda, Brian D. Shaw, Patrick Siegman, Jeff Speck, Brian D. Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Steffen Turoff, Hank Wilson, Brett Wood, and Niraj Verma.