Yesterday, I slipped my credit card into a solar-powered parking kiosk in the Baltimore neighborhood of Fells Point. Two dollars gave me a little receipt to put on my dashboard, which was good for two hours worth of parking in a prime spot on Broadway. I found the open spot within a minute. We enjoyed a walk around the harbor area and a nice dinner at a Fells Point restaurant.
This meter system has been in place in Baltimore for around five years, and it's been popular among business owners, the local government, and the public as a whole. There is only need for one machine per ten parking spots, which reduces street clutter. There's no more shuffling around for change. Meter collection theft is managed. Variable pricing could be a possibility. What's not to like about these new systems that are being installed in cities around the country?
That is if you believe that those who park should pay for their own parking. In some areas, many people still believe motorists have an inalienable right to have their cars stored for free (or at least really cheaply). Matthew Yglesias has an analogy for this particular form of government subsidy.
"It’s overwhelming conventional wisdom in the United States that price controls are bad. If I suggested that the city implement price controls on Diet Coke, people would say that it would lead to shortages. And if I proposed dealing with the ensuring shortages by saying that anyone who wants to build a new building needs to also provide millions of dollars worth of Diet Coke to people in the neighborhood, people would look at me as if I were insane. Creating the Diet Coke shortages is not a favor to anyone—neither fans nor haters of Diet Coke benefit—and the regulatory mandate is an absurd subsidy to Diet Coke drinkers with no conceivable policy justification. It’s bizarre."
15 comments:
So, instead we allow the free market to turn all of our public spaces into parking?
Perhaps the business owners, downtown associations, Chambers of Commerce, and every other type of economic booster, could get together and pay full price for the land they want to have their customers park their vehicles on?
That's right - no purloining of public space, no cross-subsidization of particular commercial enterprises, and no publicly provided policemen and women to enforce the parking regulations. Full price parking!
Then, we might discover the real price of land. And, then, maybe then, underground parking and a safe and efficient transit system might suddenly become more attractive.
What Zed said.
And: Why do people repeat the words of Those Who Have Popular Names when it's clear that the most charitable thing one could say about The Words from the Popular Name are a tortured analogy that simply doesn't hold?
Do yourself a favor and stop slobbering on The Words from Those Who Have Popularity.
Zed, I see your point, but there may be a way to move toward full price of parking gradually. I think it's pretty radical for most people in the U.S. right now. Chicago privatized their parking, but even there, the city government is putting up some price controls to shelter drivers. Maybe instead of full privatization, city governments can approximate the market by starting to charge more than they were - or at least something.
Eeeks: every analogy breaks down somewhere. Do you think this analogy breaks down before it ever becomes useful? How so?
In what way is it in the public interest to sell something for a one-time payment for which the public could receive ongoing income? In other words, metering is better because it results in a revenue stream, which a sale does not.
Furthermore, parking rent can be directed to the area in which it was collected for the purpose of building and maintaining public improvements.
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Is that really happened?? If so then it is shocking. Its something unbelievable though. parking at luton airport
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