4 ms·

What if street parking was more reflective of the actual costs and drastically limited the amount of time you could park? This could mean the likelihood of a sp

What if street parking was more reflective of the actual costs and drastically limited the amount of time you could park? This could mean the likelihood of a spot being available in front a story very high. I forgot what city implemented this (may have been San Francisco) but they made street parking triple the price and only for 15-30 minutes. As a result businesses in front of street parking got more customers. I'm trying to search this on google, it may have been a paper put out by strong towns. I remember an episode of econ talk discussing it here: https://www.econtalk.org/donald-shoup-on-the-economics-of-parking/ https://www.econtalk.org/donald-shoup-on-the-economics-of-pa...

hilbert42 5y ago
That's all very well but until there's decent public transport most people will do what I do (and those who I know do exactly what I do now). "What if street parking was more reflective of the actual costs and drastically limited the amount of time you could park?" Where I live now I'd suggest it's the opposite, as the cost of parking is outrageously high. What I didn't mention was that I'll also bypass the shops unless the available parking is close—almost outside the shop I'm going to—because walking time from where I park to the shop adds significantly to the expense (every moment counts)! Some years ago I was in New York and was staggered that the price of parking there was about one third of where I live. I was so impressed (and outraged) that I took a series of photos (around 34th & 8th) then did the same here at home for comparison to ensure people would actually believe me. To ensure my locals couldn't accuse me of fudging the photos I made sure the Empire State was visible in a number of the photos (the difference in price was so great they otherwise would have through disbelief). Shame I can't post them here. I'm the first to agree that what I do is far from ideal—clearly, using a 100kW-plus engine to propel me to my destination is inefficient but the naysayers only ever put one side of the story. Hiking parking prices to fit the need/demand is only one lopsided part of a much-needed better solution.
- azemetre 5y ago
  I'm really confused on what you are trying to say. Are you stating that you think parking should be cheaper and allotted for longer periods of time? For example say $5 gets you one hour? I honestly don't know what you're trying to insinuate outside that you own a car... You're saying you wish you could park in front of the stores with street parking to do shopping, but lament that there's never spots available so you don't. I don't understand what you're trying to propose here.
  - hilbert42 5y ago
    New York has reasonably high (and realistic) parking pricing. Where I live it's outrageously high (deliberately so on political grounds—not because of restricted space (there's much more space available where I live). Introducing political idealism to deliberately hurt people just because one can is counterproductive and in the long term will do more damage than good (for starters, it's extremely alienating and likely to turn people off even a quite noble cause).

hilbert42 5y ago

That's all very well but until there's decent public transport most people will do what I do (and those who I know do exactly what I do now). "What if street parking was more reflective of the actual costs and drastically limited the amount of time you could park?" Where I live now I'd suggest it's the opposite, as the cost of parking is outrageously high. What I didn't mention was that I'll also bypass the shops unless the available parking is close—almost outside the shop I'm going to—because walking time from where I park to the shop adds significantly to the expense (every moment counts)! Some years ago I was in New York and was staggered that the price of parking there was about one third of where I live. I was so impressed (and outraged) that I took a series of photos (around 34th & 8th) then did the same here at home for comparison to ensure people would actually believe me. To ensure my locals couldn't accuse me of fudging the photos I made sure the Empire State was visible in a number of the photos (the difference in price was so great they otherwise would have through disbelief). Shame I can't post them here. I'm the first to agree that what I do is far from ideal—clearly, using a 100kW-plus engine to propel me to my destination is inefficient but the naysayers only ever put one side of the story. Hiking parking prices to fit the need/demand is only one lopsided part of a much-needed better solution.

azemetre 5y ago
I'm really confused on what you are trying to say. Are you stating that you think parking should be cheaper and allotted for longer periods of time? For example say $5 gets you one hour? I honestly don't know what you're trying to insinuate outside that you own a car... You're saying you wish you could park in front of the stores with street parking to do shopping, but lament that there's never spots available so you don't. I don't understand what you're trying to propose here.
- hilbert42 5y ago
  New York has reasonably high (and realistic) parking pricing. Where I live it's outrageously high (deliberately so on political grounds—not because of restricted space (there's much more space available where I live). Introducing political idealism to deliberately hurt people just because one can is counterproductive and in the long term will do more damage than good (for starters, it's extremely alienating and likely to turn people off even a quite noble cause).