Donald Shoup, Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, to Receive National Planning Pioneer Award

March 31, 2015

Washington, DC –Donald Shoup, FAICP, Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, will receive the 2015 National Planning Pioneer Award from the American Planning Association for his lifetime of achievement, leadership and contributions to the field of urban planning. Read more at: www.planning.org/awards/2015/Pioneer.

Shoup is an academic authority on parking and its effects on transportation, land use, cities, the economy and the environment. He has extensively studied parking as a key link between transportation and land use. His research on employer-paid parking led to passage of California’s parking cash-out law and to changes in the Internal Revenue Code to encourage parking cash out.

In 2005, Shoup wrote The High Cost of Free Parking, which explains how better parking policies can improve cities, the economy and the environment. The principles outlined in his book, which gained widespread attention outside the usual confines of academia and municipal planning departments, led a number of cities to start charging fair market prices for curb parking, dedicating the resulting revenue to finance public services and reducing or removing off-street parking requirements.

“Professor Shoup’s work has sparked a national discussion about the way communities plan for and implement parking,” said W. Shedrick Coleman, 2015 APA Awards Jury chair. “Cities across the nation have experienced revitalization resulting in part from implementing these game-changing approaches to parking.”

In San Francisco, Shoup’s ideas were the foundation for the innovative SF Park program, which has become a nationally recognized model of demand-based street parking management. Cities nation-wide are adopting his policies, demonstrating the wide-reaching significance of Shoup’s work and his ability to effectively communicate his ideas to a variety of audiences, not just academics.

Shoup and additional APA award winners will be honored at the 2015 National Planning Awards luncheon April 20, 2015, at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. Shoup will also be featured in the April 2015 issue of Planning magazine. Read more at: www.planning.org/awards/2015/Pioneer.

For a list of all of the APA 2015 National Planning Excellence and Achievement Award recipients, visit www.planning.org/awards/2015. APA’s national awards program, the profession’s highest honor, is a proud tradition established more than 50 years ago to recognize outstanding community plans, planning programs and initiatives, public education efforts, and individuals for their leadership on planning issues.

The American Planning Association is an independent, not-for-profit educational organization that provides leadership in the development of vital communities. APA and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, are dedicated to advancing the art, science and profession of good planning — physical, economic and social — so as to create communities that offer better choices for where and how people work and live. Members of APA help create communities of lasting value and encourage civic leaders, business interests and citizens to play a meaningful role in creating communities that enrich people’s lives. APA has offices in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Ill. For more information, visit www.planning.org.