>Things like free parking are there to attract shoppers, including suburbanites. If it's worth it to provide parking for shoppers, businesses will build it on

>Things like free parking are there to attract shoppers, including suburbanites. If it's worth it to provide parking for shoppers, businesses will build it on their own if no street parking exists (since otherwise they can freeride on the city's dime). Japan, for instance, pretty much doesn't have street parking from what I recall from living there and thus private lots cover all parking needs. In expensive areas, parking will be expensive or nonexistent (since it is likely dense and the need for parking is small) and in cheap areas it will be cheap or free. Also, many city dwellers do not drive or drive rarely, so to them free parking is mostly wasted space and potentially even actively harmful to their interests. Manhattanites would likely rather have wider sidewalks than street parking since the sidewalks are so crowded, but no one asked them. We even made the sidewalks smaller than they originally were to move more cars, despite walking moving vastly more people on Manhattan streets. We reduced the capacity of moving people to move more cars, something that directly harms city residents in various ways. >I agree though that parking downtown should be expensive (or at least reflect the actual cost of providing it). You have to be careful about unintended consequences though. The pricing mechanism acts as a way to ration parking spaces, and if the cost is too low all the spots will be taken. If it's too high, no one will use it since it's too expensive. You don't want to price at cost. You want there to always be a couple spaces open. If you run out of parking, people will circle the block. The best on street parking system would be a dynamic system that takes into account demand so prices vary throughout the day or the week. This way some spots can always be open and the current 'circle the block' problem goes away. It would also take into account special events and holidays. Many cities don't do that and only charge some extremely small parking fee. >I can imagine a future where parking is so expensive that shoppers just tell their car to circle the block while they shop. Some cities, such as London and Singapore, have congestion pricing. This is to make drivers pay for the externality of congestion, something that gas taxes and the like don't currently pay for. With congestion pricing, circling the block could also be costly.