SF Park — More Than An Ap

Matt Richtel's NYT story about San Francisco's innovative SF Park initiative worries me that it might mislead some people. He focuses heavily on the use of smartphone aps to help inform people about where vacant spots are. That's a neat idea, but the core of the initiative is the use of better pricing schemes so as to allocate the spaces efficiently:


Parking will also frequently cost less. SFpark will adjust meter prices based on demand to encourage drivers to make trips in off-peak hours and to use parking lots and garages. While high-demand spaces will gradually go up in price, other spaces will decrease in cost.


As meter and garage pricing shifts to increase availability, instead of some blocks being full and others empty, the goal is to have, on average, at least one parking space available on every block. Once a space is found, longer time limits and new meters that accept credit and debit cards will make it easier to avoid parking tickets.


The high-tech stuff is park of making this user friendly, but the key "technology" being deployed is the idea that parking spaces should be allocated via supply and demand rather than via the central planning, rationing (park here cheaply, but only for an hour!), queueing (circle the block!), and other Soviet methods typically used in American parking policy.




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Published on May 08, 2011 07:31
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