"I don’t see why people have to pay market rents to live in a neighborhood but the cars should live rent-free. In New York you have expensive housing for people and free parking for cars. You’ve got your priorities exactly the wrong way around."

Renowned as one of the world’s top authorities on parking policy, UCLA Urban Planning Professor Dr. Donald Shoup is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, a publication so popular among scholars and devotees that he attracts groupies known as Shoup-istas at book signings.

According to Shoup, free parking is the root problem of many of the ills that face our biggest cities. He posits that reforming parking policy will lead to a better pedestrian environment, cleaner streets and air, safer downtown shopping districts, and — yes — even fewer headaches for drivers trying to find that ever elusive curb space.

In March 2007, Shoup paid a visit to NYC to enlighten city leaders with his research. Here’s part of a taped chat with the Open Planning Project’s Mark Gorton.