Re:How not to create traffic jams: Don’t let people park for...
by closeparen on Saturday April 08, 2017 @04:50PM
(#14068956)
Paid parking actually helps with zero latency: if parking is priced such that some is always available, you can park instantly as long as you're willing to pay. It doesn't help much that the parking is free if it's full by 6AM.
Same with proportional penalty for leaving late: arrive somewhere after the free parking fills up, and you're screwed.
Same with availability: forget parking on the street at any vaguely popular time. It's not very direct if you end up in a street space 2 miles away from your destination. And maybe I would like to spend more than 2 hours somewhere.
You can see this with BART, which wildly undercharges for its parking (around $3/day). The only way to park in a BART-owned space is to travel very early in the morning, or spend years on the monthly-permit waiting list, which guarantees a space until 10am.
I'd prefer to drive 1.5 miles to my local station (uphill, or I would bike). Instead I drive 6 miles to a station with a private parking lot, because it's priced high enough ($11) that there's always an available space for me at 9:30am. I've decided those $11 are worth the hour of free time not spent on walking to my local station.
Same with proportional penalty for leaving late: arrive somewhere after the free parking fills up, and you're screwed.
Same with availability: forget parking on the street at any vaguely popular time. It's not very direct if you end up in a street space 2 miles away from your destination. And maybe I would like to spend more than 2 hours somewhere.
You can see this with BART, which wildly undercharges for its parking (around $3/day). The only way to park in a BART-owned space is to travel very early in the morning, or spend years on the monthly-permit waiting list, which guarantees a space until 10am.
I'd prefer to drive 1.5 miles to my local station (uphill, or I would bike). Instead I drive 6 miles to a station with a private parking lot, because it's priced high enough ($11) that there's always an available space for me at 9:30am. I've decided those $11 are worth the hour of free time not spent on walking to my local station.