Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

by Henry Grabar

In many cities, for example, permit zones have balkanized the curb parking supply between low-occupancy curbs in single-family neighborhoods and congested curbs on neighboring blocks with apartment buildings. Parking zone gerrymandering can give some residents privileged access to busy neighborhoods. To make matters worse, residential parking permits are sold for peanuts and without regard for the parking supply. It costs just $50 to store your car on the streets of Washington, DC, for the year, and in some neighborhoods the city sells four times as many permits as there are street spaces. To clear up this mess, the District could auction off a fixed number of permits—or, more cynically, it could turn permits into limited, tradable assets whose value would increase, rather than decrease, as the city adds new residents, giving existing permit holders an incentive to say yes to new neighbors.