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Photo credit: Max Himmelrich/Daily Bruin staff

Life Lessons from Dr. Donald Shoup

Losing Dr. Donald Shoup in our industry last week has been surprisingly hard. He’d clearly led a long and full life but somehow still had a youthful and always-evolving energy that tricked you into thinking he was invincible. I suppose that’s because his ideas are invincible. Here are some of the life lessons I picked up from him over the years:

• Be dignified but not too serious. Shoup loved a self-deprecating joke. Laughter diffuses tension on challenging topics.

• Be prepared. Yet he was no joke – he prepared extensive notes for remarks he delivered – the academic’s way. He chose his words very carefully and was always extraordinarily prepared. Noone is too smart, good, or famous to show up underprepared.

• Be kind. He was surprisingly kind. You can see it in how many people feel empowered by him. He dished out compliments when deserved.

• Focus on where your unique value add is. His ideas extended far beyond on parking policy but he was so extraordinarily useful on this orphaned topic no one was paying enough attention to. There is a great deal of bad parking, traffic, and congestion policy masked as irrefutable science. He likely understood his economics training would be most useful pointed toward that type of challenge.

• Recognize bad science and false precision: There is plenty of this left to interrogate in the planning world – so buckle up and channel Shoup.

He accomplished so much and there is so much left for us to do.

When I first started working on parking reform projects in 2009 in San Francisco, most practitioners were openly dismissive of his ideas. There was, frankly, ideological warfare in the industry on the topics he champions. I credit both him and his early followers – the generation before me - greatly for braving the pushback and creating an opening for us to create a career in. I was shocked to be hired to help implement his ideas in the SFpark pilot projects over longtime transportation engineers but in hindsight I understand why now – the project’s leader Jay Primus was trying to shape a new way of doing things: Shoup’s way aided by new technology and data tools – and ditch some of the industry’s heavy methodological baggage. Today nearly all mobility firms champion Shoup’s ideas – 16 years ago, they - and his early followers - were fairly openly scorned by most. What an incredible pace of change that his concepts are now broadly adopted. Now, implementation takes more time – he himself noted that the vast majority of zoning codes in US cities do not reflect his recommended practices – yet.

Even in passing, he leaves us with a blessing that we have a clear signpost for how to honor his legacy and continue his work. Only Shoup would be so kind as to make all of us planners feel so useful in this new chapter without his leadership.

-Lauren

A few interesting things. 🧠

Parking Minimums: A comprehensive database of cities that have made efforts to remove parking minimums from their codes.

Zoning Reform: Cambridge, MA passed new zoning laws that enable four-story buildings to be constructed as-of-right in most of the city. The revised ordinance on the heels of Massachusetts releasing a comprehensive statewide housing plan - which recommends that the state build more than 220,000 housing units by 2035.

Choose How You Move: A great overview of Nashville’s approach to increasing transportation options - a lot of valuable lessons in both structuring and communicating the benefits of multimodal ballot initiatives to learn from here.

A quick Journey update. 👷‍♀️

ACT Book Club: Speaking of zoning codes and continuing Shoup’s work, we are excited to host zoning expert Sara Bronin at ACT on Thursday afternoon to discuss her new book Key to the City. She too emphasizes that zoning can facilitate major community shifts and that US cities need to refresh stagnant codes. She reminds us that zoning has become the most significant regulatory power of local government and has huge influence on our economy and the structure of our society. I think Shoup would wholeheartedly agree with her assessment that we “must demand more of zoning as it enters its second century.” Sign up here and tune in on Thursday from 4:30-5:30 EST.