The SEASIDE Institute™ is pleased to announce that Donald Shoup, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA, will be honored as the 2023 SEASIDE Prize™ recipient for his radical rethinking of parking policy. In his groundbreaking 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, and his work since then, Shoup changed the way cities view the relationship between parking and the built environment, traffic congestion, energy consumption, and local economic development.

The Institute will hold the 29th Annual SEASIDE Prize™ on February 24-26, 2023. Last year’s winner, Jeff Speck, wrote in his seminal Walkable City Rules: “Parking covers more acres of Urban America than any one thing, and yet planners have neglected it for years … that was until the research of one man, who helped change the way planners think about parking forever.” That man was Donald Shoup. As noted in The Wall Street Journal, Shoup is described as a “parking rock star” whose works have inspired a group of followers dubbed Shoupistas.

The New York Times wrote that Shoup’s work “has led to a revolution in ideas about relieving congestion.” The High Cost of Free Parking and Shoup’s 2018 book, Parking and the City, remain classics in the fields of transportation and city planning. Jeffrey Tumlin, the author of Sustainable Transportation Planning, wrote: “If your city wants to focus on one topic for reducing traffic congestion, improving housing availability, cleaning the air, lessening climate change, making government more efficient, and enlivening the economy—all at the same time—then it should focus on parking.”

The SEASIDE Institute™ awards the SEASIDE Prize™ annually to individuals, organizations, or places that have made major contributions to the quality of the built community. Recipients have significantly influenced how towns and cities can best be built and rebuilt to reflect and promote New Urban principles, such as walkability, affordability, diversity, beauty, and sustainability. For more information on the SEASIDE Prize™, visit Seaside Institute.org.

In addition to his position at UCLA, Shoup is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, an Honorary Professor at the Beijing Transportation Research Center, a winner of the American Planning Association’s National Excellence Award as a Planning Pioneer, and the American Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Distinguished Educator Award. More on Shoup can be found at ShoupDogg.com.

For Walton County, FL, like other areas throughout the country and world, parking and traffic congestion are critical challenges. With wit and humor, Shoup will present solutions that he discovered over many years of research.

The SEASIDE Prize™ Weekend will include guest lectures (some of which will be CEU accredited); the SEASIDE Prize™ Gala and awards ceremony; walking tours of SEASIDE®, Alys Beach and Rosemary Beach; and social gatherings. The Prize Weekend is an opportunity for all who have an interest in New Urbanism, walkable communities, and human-scale planning and design. While the Prize Weekend is often of interest to architects, planners, and design students, all members of the community are invited to attend and learn why parking and traffic can be manageable with the right policies.

“You don’t have to be a planner to appreciate Dr. Shoup’s insights. Everyone in our community will be enlightened by his perspectives on why “free parking is anything but free,” said SEASIDE Institute™ Executive Director Thomas Cordi.

2023 SEASIDE Prize™ tickets are available now: register here >>.

To become a member of the SEASIDE Institute™, visit SeasideInstitute.org/membership.