Announcing Wiki Wednesdays: A Weekly Dose of Livable Streets Knowledge

Today we’re launching a new feature on Streetsblog — Wiki Wednesdays — where we’ll highlight new content coming online at StreetsWiki, the community-created livable streets knowledge base.

The inaugural entry is the bio-in-progress on UCLA professor Donald Shoup (right). Earlier this week, Zane Selvans (member of the Livable Streets Network since June 16) helped flesh out some details about how Shoup’s theories on parking policy have been applied in California:

Prof. Shoup helped draft California’s “Parking Cash Out” Law, requiring employers who provide free parking to their employees to offer comparable transportation subsidies to employees who do not drive. He also worked with the City of Pasadena, California to develop the dynamic market based parking pricing scheme used in Old Pasadena and other business districts, to pay for infrastructure improvements and maintain a constant supply of on-street parking spaces.

Shoup is known especially for his criticism of free parking, and the consequences that it has on transportation decisions, as detailed in his book The High Cost of Free Parking.

With New York City DOT about to test out Shoup’s ideas in two pilot areas, and Transportation Alternatives calling for further reform of parking management — following the lead of Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington DC — this StreetsWiki entry is ripe for expansion.

If Shoup’s not up your alley, to start a new entry, sign up and drop some knowledge.