Parking rates are going up in Santa Monica.

The City of Santa Monica just voted to raise parking fees at its public garages along the Promenade, after a  study concluded that “extra revenue is secondary to the money that City Hall and property owners would save if they don’t have to acquire land and build new garages. Instead, they need to better manage what exists,” according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.

This conclusion sounds practically ripped from the pages of Donald Shoup’s 800+ page tome, The High Cost of Free Parking. A professor of urban planning at UCLA, Shoup has inspired legions of fellowers, who have evidently invaded the ranks of city planning departments, particularly on the West Coast.

If you do not have the time to read Shoup’s book, simply memorize his most oft-repeated recommendation: to price public parking competitively with the hourly cost of private garages such that at any given time, 15% of the spaces are vacant and available for those most willing to pay.

Santa Monica’s decision to boost parking rates, rather than interpret its lack of peak-hour parking as a mandate to build additional garages, may be just the latest evidence of Shoup’s growing influence, at least in progressive circles.