advocating urbanism in the opportunity city
You must watch this video
How San Francisco is giving the Free-Market a try
A look at How San Francisco is letting the Free-Market solve it’s parking problems. From SFpark on Vimeo.
A look at How San Francisco is letting the Free-Market solve it’s parking problems. From SFpark on Vimeo.
4 Comments
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I love the vintage Sim-City-esque design of the video. The “federally funded” quote in the video, which most likely alludes to who paid for the technology, kind-of conflicts with the “free market” in your subtitle. But I understand you were referring to dynamic pricing for parking as “free market.”
With this technology in place it seems it would also be possible to reserve a parking spot near a location at a given time. The reply would be sent to the smartphone and include GPS coordinates and exact parking meter ID number for the parking spot. A reservation system would help for those once-in-a-while trips to busy areas. Reservations could also be charged a “convenience fee.”
I look forward to seeing the results of this system.
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The video says prices only adjust once a month, which seems like a problem. Surely most parking areas are congested at certain times of the day, while being less used other times (e.g., streets near popular nightlife areas). If the goal is to make sure there is always at least one spot open, prices will be set based on demand during peak usage and will be excessive during off-peak times.
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Good point. The best system should absolutely adjust prices for time of day.
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I took a look at their actual website, and it looks like I might have misinterpreted the video. The website says “SFpark will adjust meter prices based on demand to encourage drivers to make trips in off-peak hours and to use parking lots and garages.” http://sfpark.org/how-it-works/
The mention of off-peak hours makes it sound like there will be different hourly-rates. When the video said “adjust once a month,” maybe it meant that the prices for hourly rates would be updated once a month, not that the price would stay constant for a month at a time.