SF to Implement New Parking Pricing Scheme

The board of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency decided last week to implement a trial sliding-scale pricing scheme for 6,000 of the city’s parking spaces. The program will be in effect for 18 months, starting next spring. Parking space occupancy will be monitored in six areas of the city and parking prices will be adjusted up or down every month or so based on observed congestion. Parking prices will generally range from 25¢ to $6 per hour, though could increase to as much as $18 in some areas during big events. Prices will also likely vary by time of day and not just place.

Can I say finally?

Publicly provided parking has long been underpriced, and often free – and this is to say nothing of the disastrous impacts of large off-street parking requirements for private projects. Underpriced on-street parking in urban areas, particularly central business districts, leads to numerous negative externalities that drivers should rightfully internalize through higher costs. As drivers circle around looking for an ideal spot, they create air pollution (with health, global warming and other impacts), noise, congestion and resultant stress, loss of time and productivity, and increased risks of accidents (especially with pedestrians and bicyclists).

The negative externalities produced by auto use have long been recognized and have led to the imposition of gas taxes and various other fees and taxes on auto-related activities and goods. Nonetheless, publicly provided parking has generally remained very cheap, preventing full internalization of the external costs of driving. There is no reason that those who don’t drive should have to incur any part of these costs.

Free (or cheap) parking is not a fundamental right. Sure, many people have come to expect and rely on cheap parking over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, but that doesn’t mean they automatically accede to a right to impose significant negative externalities on the general population, future generations and environment. “Well,” you might say, “we’re improving automotive technologies and reducing air pollution externalities.” Yes, that is true, but even hybrid, electric and biodiesel autos produce significant air pollution and have other, sometimes unique, environmental impacts – e.g. electric battery production and disposal. And all auto use, regardless of the type of vehicle driven, still causes other problems like congestion and increased risk of accidents. Thus, absent complete elimination of negative externalities, these central questions remain: Why should drivers be favored over non-drivers? Why should automobiles be our primary mode of transportation? If you have the answers, let me know.

By increasing the cost of parking, congestion would be reduced and local governments would increase their revenues – which additional money they should use to pay for increased transit provision, air quality improvement, and other measures to reduce the externalities of driving and provide alternate mobility options. San Francisco has taken an important first step towards realizing these benefits, and I hope they prove fruitful. It is too early to tell whether a sea change is occurring in parking policy, but with already encouraging results from London’s congestion pricing program, successes in San Francisco could induce other localities in the United States to implement similar schemes.