Honoring Donald Shoup's Legacy

An elderly man stands at a wooden lectern speaking into a microphone inside a church, with a cross behind him.

A dedication to Donald Shoup (1938-2025)

One of the first projects assigned to me in my career with Seaside was parking management. As you can imagine, if you have visited the 30A and Seaside area during peak season, you can attest that this is no easy undertaking. I remember when my general manager offered me a book to help me learn about parking management through paid parking — The High Cost of Free Parking, Donald Shoup’s landmark publication. She explained it was Robert Davis’ “parking bible.” For a parking greenhorn like myself, reading this in the beginning was a very good sleep aid. But the more I studied Shoup’s work and the tangible relationships between managed parking, congestion improvement, and creating a constant supply, I began to see Shoup as he really was — a master in a field that, essentially, he alone was leading.

Shoup was awarded the Seaside Prize in 2023 for his radical methods of rethinking parking policies and management. I had the immense pleasure of meeting him that year, and I recall being terrified that a professional like him was reviewing our parking management model. However, my fear was completely unfounded. When Shoup entered the conference room, despite the monumental importance of the subject, his demeanor was playful — almost giddy in an infectious way. Despite his reputation preceding him, he didn’t seem to take himself too seriously.

Donald Shoup was a true leader and visionary in the realm of parking management, and as a good leader tends to do, he gained quite a sizable following nationally and internationally. These “Shoupistas” are a collective of young innovators seeking to build upon Shoup’s work and change the world of parking, traffic congestion, energy reduction, and the way we view the built environment. “Shoup Dogg,” as he was sometimes jokingly referred to by his followers, inspired people to improve the quality of our daily interactions with the community on many levels.

Parking is the most important aspect of a business. It is the first thing people experience when they arrive and the last experience when they depart. A bad experience can set a negative tone for the day, even if the visit in between was magical. Shoup dedicated his life in academia to better improving those important aspects that people pay so little attention to — but, as he believed wholeheartedly, parking matters.

Shoup will be remembered by countless individuals, as his work laid a foundation, and his words will continue to inspire future generations to carry the torch of his legacy.

Jeremy Barnes

Executive Director of Operations – Seaside