In “The High Cost of Free Parking,” he made a dry topic interesting, capturing the attention of policymakers and influencing the ways cities are built.

Donald Shoup, a professor of urban studies whose provocative and occasionally amusing 734-page treatise on the economics of parking sparked reforms in thousands of cities, helping reduce traffic, create green space and make cities more walkable, died on Feb. 6 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86.

The cause was a stroke, his wife, Pat Shoup, said.

Professor Shoup was an intellectual hero to urbanists. His disciples called themselves the Shoupistas — their Facebook group has more than 8,100 followers — and referred to their bearded guru as Shoup Dogg, after the rapper Snoop Dogg.

Professor Shoup, who bicycled to his office at the University of California, Los Angeles, in khaki pants and a tweed sport coat, did not rap. But he managed to take a dry

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