Posted by Peter Carpenter, a resident of Atherton, on Sep 4, 2012 at 9:55 am
Peter Carpenter is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Stanford University learned long ago that free parking lead to a lot of wasted time looking for a parking space and diverted money for parking programs from its primary educational mission. In 1976 Stanford introduced paid parking and the results have been impressive. Lots of new parking structures built with parking revenues, bike and pedestrian paths built with parking revenues and the Marguerita shuttle serving Stanford and surrounding communities paid for by parking revenues. Not one dime of educational funds go to the care and feeding of automobiles. And in the process large central portions of the campus where automobiles had been free to drive and park were converted to automobile exclusion zones and now have become pleasant pedestrian and bicycle spaces.

Free goods are never allocated in a responsible or fair manner. Parking is no exception.

Posted by Cedric de La Beaujardiere, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 12:18 am

(I can't login to the system for some reason)

Assuming I'm thinking of the right author, Donald Shoup's strategy is to find the right price for parking such that 85% of the spots are parked and 15% are free at any given moment, statistically. The aim is to have 1 or 2 spots free each block so you can park instead of endlessly circling and causing more traffic trying to find a spot. There was a survey of drivers, I think in NYC, showing that -- if I recall correctly -- 25% of the drivers were actually looking to park! Of course, that's a bigger city, but I wouldn't be surprised if downtown PA was comparable.