Free Parking or Free Markets

Abstract

Free Parking or Free Markets DONALD SHOUP It is no doubt ironic that the motorcar, superstar of the capitalist system, expects to live rent-free. W OLFGANG Z UCKERMAN C ITIES SHOULD CHARGE THE RIGHT PRICES FOR CURB PARKING because the wrong prices produce such bad results. Where curb parking is underpriced and overcrowded, a surprising share of cars on congested streets can be searching for a place to park. Sixteen studies conducted between 1927 and 2001 found that, on average, 30 percent of the cars in congested downtown traffic were cruising for parking. More recently, when researchers interviewed drivers stopped at traffic signals in New York City in 2006 and 2007, they found that 28 percent of the drivers on a street in Manhattan and 45 percent on a street in Brooklyn were cruising for curb parking. In another study in 2008, 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. For each individual driver, 3.1 minutes is not a long time, and 0.37 miles is not a long distance, but because there are so many drivers, the cumulative consequences are staggering. In a year, cruising for underpriced parking on these 15 blocks alone creates about 366,000 excess vehicle miles of travel (equal to 14 trips around the earth) and 325 tons of CO 2 . Donald Shoup is Professor of Urban Planning in the Luskin School of Public A ffairs at the University of California, L os Angeles (shoup@ucla.edu). A C C E S S