Is Free Parking good for our city?

Thanks to one of my colleagues who passed on this useful short article outlining some of the high costs of offering "free" parking (of course nothing is ever free) including lost revenue and the high percentage of valuable inner city land taken up by parking buildings and spaces. It is high time that we debate whether we should continue to offer such a "free service" rather than accepting the argument that we need to do this to keep shoppers in the inner city.