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A point was made in a blog today (see link below) that if
parking meters were priced correctly there would always
be spaces - they may be extremely expensive in some
areas around lunchtime, but they'd be the right price for
someone in a hurry to park.
The idea is to simply vary parking meter
prices. For any
given block, all of the meters charge based on how many
spots are taken. If the street's empty, charge $0.25/hour.
Half full, $0.50. Two spaces left, $20. One space, $50.
Over time, have these rates automatically adjust to try to
keep a few spaces always open.
This would be easily implemented with modern digital
parking meters, or even with the type that prints out a
window sticker (but a sticker would only be valid for that
block).
Blog article mentioned in idea.
http://yglesias.thi.../parking_meters.php
[Worldgineer, Dec 05 2008]
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Some people suggest that parking should be free (and i'm one). Reduce conjestion and polution, and parking will be available when you need it by providing the right amount of spaces. If there's no spaces then there's not enough! |
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Clever and logical idea - might be worth a trial. On the other hand it's yet another way of making cities nicer places for the rich and pretty hard going for the poor. I guarantee central London rates would never drop below £20/hr. |
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There's nothing that should drive away business more efficiently than this idea, such a thing would hurt overall sales but would drive up business for the free-parking rivals :| |
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That is very petty business, kind of like what a politician would do to pay for expensive roadside pottery decor, what is the advantage of this Worldgineer? |
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....Oh, I see, of course you can go ahead and do that in Chicago [+]. |
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The basic idea is to reduce congestion caused by
circling the block looking for a spot. This results
in wasted time for the driver, wasted time for
others on the road, and higher fuel use for
everyone. I'm happy to give subsidies to the poor
in helpful ways, but not in ways that encourage
them to drive to shop. |
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I'd argue that sales wouldn't be hurt in the
slightest. You still have the same number of cars
that would park on a given block (well, minus one
or two)
- meaning the same number of customers - they'd
just be paying the correct (from a supply-demand
perspective) price for parking. Actually, you
might get more customers, since many might shop
quicker knowing how much parking costs per
minute. |
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Yes, that only really works in small and densely crowded areas though. Try doing that in wide open areas with a more loosely packed capita and you'll lose business though, people will just drive another 3 miles to give their money to another store without the meters just because they're used to not paying for parking. |
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In a free market, speculators will fill the spaces when cheap and sell them later. |
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//For any given block, all of the meters charge based on how many spots are taken.// |
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Or let each meter set its own price based on trends for its own position. The higher the demand at midday, the higher the price. No business at midnight, the price drops. That way there's no need to communicate with other meters. The going rate should be shown in a big display, however, so that people know what they're getting into: "Parking 5 miles ahead, only $2.40/hr! Meter 74." |
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[quantum] That's a strange argument. If everyone
left for other stores, parking would be about free
(a penny a spot, if the machines take pennies). In
fact, parking will always be cheap enough to lure
the same number of people, minus a car or two. |
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//really works in small and densely crowded areas
though// Well, not necessarily "small". I was
thinking of cities. Though I still think this would
work for towns as well. We subsidize cars far too
much, and free parking is a good example of this.
If parking is free then you probably have too much
of it and your town isn't pedestrian friendly. |
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[ldischler] I was imagining a time component to
this as well, with prices adjusting per time of day.
But I don't see a reason for meters to work independently - that would cause people to circle
looking for the best rates. Even single blocks may
be too small of an area, and I'd be fine with
expanding this to multiple block areas. |
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Never underestimate the frugality of a mostly all republican state. |
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Just convince people that they waste more money on gas by searching for the cheap meter. |
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Hey [World] I like the idea. |
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In areas where commodities are made available at a fixed price on a first-come-first-served basis - whether it's ticket sales, parking places, freshly baked croissants, or just low-low prices - queues develop. |
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And isn't a queue just natures way of creating a market?(nature abhors a free-ride) It's just that instead of investing in effort (i.e. cash) you are instead forced to invest your time (by being earlier than everyone else) - So in one way, I'd suggest that queues are a form of market already - the only difference being that the commodity being 'traded' is time, rather than currency. |
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