Comments on: Parking Incentives (Wall-E Edition)

By: john in nh

john in nh — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:02:05 +0000

I think the Kiosks are great actually, never had an issue with them. However I am not a big fan of the dial in spot only options, I do not own a phone, and do not plan to in any way any time soon, what am I suppose to do if I need to park in a pay by phone area?? I think the Kiosks need to be there but also have the pay by phone option to make sure everybody is included.

that also said, Americans are lazy and typically wont walk the block for the Kiosk, but one benefit is old meters can now become bike parking!!

By: Don K

Don K — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:35:26 +0000

I hadn’t heard about the central kiosks before, but then I live in the burbs, where our downtowns still have actual meters. I have about no confidence at all that American parking authorities won’t use the kiosks as super revenue generators by stationing parking cops where they can ticket cars while the drivers go to the kiosks.

The nearest downtown to me has five parking garages with free parking for the first two hours, so if you want to go to dinner or do some extensive shopping you can do that for free or a minimal charge so long as you’re willing to walk a few blocks, which frees up (expensive) curb parking for people who just want to do a quick in and out at a merchant.

By: Peter Smith

Peter Smith — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:12:48 +0000

the revenue is not lost as long as the city keeps targeting that magic ‘85% of available parking’ number.

i actually don’t believe the story is or was true for more than one time — the driver would learn her lesson and learn to park and walk to the meter and pay.

part of driving a car nowadays is it’s going to mean you’re going to have to become more and more obedient to authority. you already work your job just to pay for your car, but now you’re also going to have to pay for some of the externalities of driving that you never had to pay for before. i love it.

it also reminds of all the “I’m moving to Canada!” false promises when Bush became president. in this case, it’s ayn randian/faux-i-hate-the-irs-terrorists/the-city-will-fail-without-my-genius-and-money outrage. boring.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:42:11 +0000

In most European countries payboxes have been used for over 20 yrs. They work extremely well - people are of course given a time to walk to the paybox, pay, walk back to car. You can pay with coins or credit/debit card. Pay for the time you need the spot - in some cases there are time limits.
Payboxes are obviously far more cost effective in the long run to install, maintain and manage than individual meters.
I can see the advantage with high tech electronic systems but these would only seem to be warranted in major city centers with v high parking charges.
It seems unbelievable that people in the US are unwilling to adapt to a new system.

By: Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:05:41 +0000

There’s a lot that can be done. Pay-by-phone is one example (making it easier) but there are many arguments that street parking should not be subsidized, nor limited unless the businesses want to do either of these.

ie. street parking should be the same rate as other parking (if there is other parking) and while it might have a time limit, it should be paid for by the actual time you use. Ie. you should be able to “log out” of the parking spot (at the meter or by phone) and pay only for the time you used/get a refund if you prepaid for time.

Right now cities lose revenue from people whose meters expire and are not caught, but they make revenue from everybody who overpays at the meter and leaves before it expires. (At least at meters like the central ones where you can’t pass on your extra time to the next car.)

Subsidized parking increases car use, which may or may not be the goal of the city, of course. Retailers want to encourage all ways to get to them. If validation because really trivial they will do it. By really trivial, I mean that, for example, while in the Starbucks you wave your cell phone over a box and it subsidizes your parking.

By: Hendrik

Hendrik — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:08:55 +0000

In a lot of European cities like Amsterdam where I live in it is becoming increasingly popular to pay via your cellphone. Either via text message or by calling a number. There is small fee involved, but it saves time, and more importantly you only pay for the amnount of time you actually stayed in the spot…

By: Josh R

Josh R — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:56:46 +0000

You’re never going to get people to stop making those cost/benefit analyses, even if their perception of the cost is completely skewed. Honestly though, I can’t really find fault in the first example given, which seems to boil down to “Hmm, I’d like a latte, but it would take longer to walk over and pay for parking then it would to go in and get the drink. Eh, guess I don’t want it that badly.” The same situation would have occurred if there had been meters, but the nearest parking space was a block away, and the person would have been right in judging that the thing they wanted (a hot drink) was not worth the extra time and hassle. If the driver had needed to stop for something more serious, something they actually needed instead of just wanted, then the walk would have been worth it.

Really, what is the point of making all spaces in an area pay spots if it isn’t to modify people’s behavior in this way? Removing free parking makes more spaces available at any given time of day, but how do you think that happens? You didn’t generate more spaces out of thin air, all you did was change the cost/benefit ratio for drivers, so people are thinking more about parking and it’s costs, if they can maybe get to work by bus, and if they really need that coffee they were going to “zip in” and get.

By: BrentAA

BrentAA — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:19:33 +0000

It seems like there is a period of adaptation at work here. People had gotten used to parking at, and feeding, a meter. But with the new system of payment, a new approach to parking is required. I live in Chicago, and if I know that I’m going to park at a metered location, I will look for the paybox and park close to it. In fact, in some situations, I will stop before I get to my destination (if I know I will be parking far from a paybox), and get the dashboard receipt at an open paybox several minutes from where I’m going to park.
While unhappy about what we Chicago taxpayers got as part of the privatization deal, as a driver I appreciate the effect of pricing the scarce good (parking spots) and the innovation the is driven by the profit motive. (I can’t imagine the department of parking ever converting to payboxes.)

By: internet commentator

internet commentator — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:09:12 +0000

The only solution to this problem is to assign property rights to all roads and parking spaces.

By: ToddBS

ToddBS — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:32:02 +0000

This makes me think of the people who circle the parking lot looking for a spot up close. 9 times out of 10, I can park in just about any spot they passed-up and walk into the store while they are still circling.