It is like 2008 all over again. Tyler Cowen writes in the NYT: Free Parking Comes at a Price and while the response should be "obviously"; Mr. Cowen is quite influential and so there has been quite a kerfuffle in the blogosphere about "free parking".
Examples:
MWaT: We’re all subsidizing parking and it ain’t cheap
MY:Parking Feedback Loops
But the best comes from a true nerd - just look at this guy:
Michael E. Lewyn. 2010. "What Would Coase Do (About Parking Regulation)?"
By artificially increasing the supply of parking and thus making driving cheaper and more convenient, these regulations have redistributed wealth from society as a whole to drivers, making driving more attractive and thus increasing automobile travel and its negative externalities (such as pollution, traffic congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions). By creating the parking-dominated “strip mall” landscape of suburbia, such regulations impose discomfort and even danger upon pedestrians. And by making urban redevelopment more expensive, minimum parking regulations shift development from city to automobile-dependent suburb. So minimum parking requirements may be one of the situations foreseen by Coase, in which government regulation creates more congestion and environmental damage than it prevents.
