Parking Today notes the passing of Roy Carter, of Toledo Ticket Technologies, and Donald Shoup, of the University of California at Los Angeles.
By Jay Landers
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Roy Carter (1938-2025)
On January 19, the parking industry lost one of its most respected and enduring figures with the passing of Roy L. Carter Jr., who dedicated more than six decades to Toledo Ticket Technologies.
In 1959, Carter joined The Toledo Ticket Co., the Toledo, Ohio, business operated by the family of Robin Northrup, whom he married in 1962. He started at the company as a printing pressman, before moving into sales and later serving as national sales manager. Carter eventually assumed the position of chief executive officer (CEO) and later chairman before retiring after more than 60 years at Toledo Ticket Technologies.
An active member of the National Parking Association (NPA) for more than 30 years, Carter served on its Board of Directors. In this capacity, Carter became the first industry vendor to serve on the NPA Executive Committee.
“My dad was a giant in the parking industry, whose vision shaped how we think about ticketing and customer service,” said Thomas L. Carter, the CEO of Toledo Ticket Technologies. “But more importantly, he was a giant of a man — a mentor, friend, and the driving force behind the values that define Toledo Ticket Technologies. While I am deeply saddened by his passing, I am forever grateful for the impact he had on my life and the lives of others at Toledo Ticket and within the parking industry.”
Carter’s family has requested that donations be made in his memory to the scholarship program conducted by the NPA’s foundation, the Parking Industry Institute.
Donald Shoup (1938-2025)
Donald Shoup, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) professor who raised the profile of parking among academia and the general public with his calls for reform, passed away on February 6 at the age of 86 following a short illness, according to a UCLA spokesperson.
A distinguished research professor of urban planning, Shoup was best known for his 2005 book “The High Cost of Free Parking,” which called on cities to charge fair-market prices for on-street parking, spend the resulting revenue to improve public services in the metered areas, and remove off-street parking requirements.
An economist by training, Shoup honed in on the economic effects of municipal parking policies, arguing that they unnecessarily mandate the construction of too many parking spaces and drive up the cost of housing and other development.
An unlikely cult hero, Shoup preached his message of parking reform, a message that over time struck a chord with a growing number of urban planners, architects, policy wonks, and others interested in municipal policy, many of whom described themselves as “Shoupistas” in honor of their leader.
Henry Grabar, in his acclaimed 2023 book “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World,” described Shoup’s influence this way: “UCLA let Shoup teach an entire course on parking, where every year new students would be converted into parking-policy apostles before fanning out into the offices of local governments, university faculties, real estate developers, and architecture firms. Everywhere they went, they preached Shoup’s radical doctrine: there is too much parking, and it’s too cheap.”
JAY LANDERS is the editor-in-chief of Parking Today magazine. He can be reached at jay@parkingtoday.com.
