If cities force neither "free parking" nor "mandatory paid parking" on businesses then it would probably work just fine. To answer your question, here are possi

If cities force neither "free parking" nor "mandatory paid parking" on businesses then it would probably work just fine. To answer your question, here are possible reasons why city might want to demand free parking from businesses: 1) If there are two neighboring businesses, one with parking and one without, then customers of business without free parking may start parking on free parking of neighboring business. Then business that provides free parking would suffer. 2) With no parking available drivers start parking on the streets, which causes traffic jams.