THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF PARKING IN EVANSTON. “There is no shortage of parking in Evanston.†The kids have heard me repeat the phrase many times. It was the first sentence that Meyer Burstein uttered in my first economics class. The price of parking was too low to clear the market. If the price were a hundred dollars an hour, the streets would be empty. If there were a slot machine instead of a parking meter, cars would be lined up looking for a place to park. Now Conor Dougherty in the Wall Street Journal for February 3/4 has an article about what cities are doing to price parking. “London has meters that go as high as $10 an hour, while San Francisco has been trying out a system that monitors usage in real time….†San Francisco could then, for example, charge higher parking rates during nearby baseball games. The article also points out objections to using prices (rather than shortages) to ration pricing—arguments that free parking is fairer for income distribution or promotes shopping districts. Economics 1 only teaches the consequences of free parking, not that there shouldn’t be free parking.
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I wonder if Pittsburgh will ever try to address its parking issues. It has bigger problems right now, but I think parking should be somewhere on the list… say maybe #20 or so. It has plenty of empty lots and run-down, unused buildings that should be easily converted into little parking lots.
Due to my experience there, I think that more parking would make for safer roads (they get extremely narrow with cars parked on either side of them, particularly with the newer, huger SUVs… plus the visibility is terrible). Also, as you mentioned, more parking would be an enticement to shoppers. Pittsburgh would love to be a bigger center of commerce, I am sure, and more parking would probably help.
I also think the taxi system could use an overhaul, but that’s another story.
This would solve all of Evanston’s problems. They even have roundtables like a railyard. I saw on Engadget that they’re installing an automated parking system similar to this in New York City and that they’ve “only” had a few instances of cars getting damaged due to mechanical error. I wonder how much insurance companies are dreading payouts on that.
On the subject of great economic minds, I forget what Professor Coe first said. Probably something about rather being at home with TiVo and sports or getting a cigarette.
Oh, and congratulations on your 100th post!
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