That is a pretty long read for someone who's surfing the forum..
How 'bout some highlights next time?
Allow me....
ABSTRACT
Urban planners typically set minimum parking
requirements to meet the peak demand for
parking at each land use, without considering
either the price motorists pay for parking or the
cost of providing the required parking spaces.
By reducing the market price of parking,
minimum parking requirement provide
subsidies that inflate parking demand, and this
inflated demand is then wed to set minimum
parking requirements. When considered as an
impact fee, minimum parking requirement
can increase development costs by more than
10 times the impact fees for other public
purposes combined. Eliminating minimum
parking requirements would reduce the cost of
urban development° improve urban design,
reduce automobile dependency, and restrain
urban sprawl.
(Emphasis mine)
So it's not the free parking per se, it's the minimum requirement that is the real catalyst.
By the way, with a lack of transit to downtown that makes sense, this library patron especially appreciates the free parking.