Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Impacts of “Free” Parking

Free Parking or Free Markets (13 page pdf, Donald Shoup, Access Vol. 38, University of California, Spring 2011)

Today’s review article looks at the benefits of having parking rates vary by demand, with some very interesting statistics from New York City on the amount of wasted driving while searching for empty spaces that are not likely to exist because of static pricing. Also discussed are the downsides of mandatory off-street minimum parking requirements.



Key Quotes:

“28 percent of the drivers on a street in Manhattan and 45 percent on a street in Brooklyn were cruising for curb parking..the average time it took to find a curb space in a 15 block area of the Upper West Side of Manhattan was 3.1 minutes and the average cruising distance was 0.37 miles”

“performance pricing[benefits]:

*curb parking will perform more efficiently. If all but one or two curb spaces are occupied on every block, parking will be well used but also readily available.

*cruising for curb parking will not congest traffic, waste fuel, pollute the air, and waste drivers' time. *the local economy will perform more efficiently. In business districts, drivers will park, buy something, and leave promptly, allowing other customers to use the spaces”

“If the meters are priced right, cars will fill most of the curb spaces, leaving only one or two vacant spaces on each block. If most curb spaces are filled, parking meters can't be chasing all the customers away”

“Parking requirements hide the cost of parking, but they cannot make it go away, and free parking often means fully subsidized parking”
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