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Getting the Prices Right: An Evaluation of Pricing Parking by Demand in San Francisco

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  • Pierce, Gregory
  • Shoup, Donald

Abstract

Underpriced and overcrowded curb parking creates problems for everyone except a few lucky drivers who find a cheap space; all the other drivers who cruise to find an open space waste time and fuel, congest traffic, and pollute the air. Overpriced and underoccupied parking also creates problems; when curb spaces remain empty, nearby merchants lose potential customers, workers lose jobs, and cities lose tax revenue. To address these problems, San Francisco has established SFpark, a program that adjusts parking prices to achieve a target parking availability of one or two open spaces on each block. To measure how parking prices affected parking occupancy in San Francisco we calculated the price elasticity of demand for on-street parking revealed by 5,294 individual price and occupancy changes during the program’s first year. Price elasticity varies greatly by time of day, location, and several other factors, with an average value of –0.4. The average meter price fell 1 percent during the first year, so SFpark adjusted prices up and down according to local demand without increasing prices overall. The city can improve the program by making drivers more aware of the variable prices, reducing the abuse of disabled parking placards, and introducing seasonal adjustments for parking prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierce, Gregory & Shoup, Donald, 2013. "Getting the Prices Right: An Evaluation of Pricing Parking by Demand in San Francisco," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt2h76j73j, University of California Transportation Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt2h76j73j
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    Cited by:

    1. Chatman, Daniel G. & Manville, Michael, 2014. "Theory versus implementation in congestion-priced parking: An evaluation of SFpark, 2011–2012," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 52-60.
    2. Qiao‐Chu He & Tiantian Nie & Yun Yang & Zuo‐Jun Shen, 2021. "Beyond Repositioning: Crowd‐Sourcing and Geo‐Fencing for Shared‐Mobility Systems," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(10), pages 3448-3466, October.
    3. Philipp Ströhle & Christoph M. Flath & Johannes Gärttner, 2019. "Leveraging Customer Flexibility for Car-Sharing Fleet Optimization," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 42-61, February.
    4. Arnott, Richard & Inci, Eren & Rowse, John, 2015. "Downtown curbside parking capacity," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 83-97.
    5. Arnott, Richard & Williams, Parker, 2017. "Cruising for parking around a circle," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 357-375.
    6. Guo Chao Alex Peng & Miguel Baptista Nunes & Luqing Zheng, 0. "Impacts of low citizen awareness and usage in smart city services: the case of London’s smart parking system," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-32.
    7. Mingardo, Giuliano & Vermeulen, Susan & Bornioli, Anna, 2022. "Parking pricing strategies and behaviour: Evidence from the Netherlands," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 185-197.
    8. Wang, Pengfei & Guan, Hongzhi & Liu, Peng, 2020. "Modeling and solving the optimal allocation-pricing of public parking resources problem in urban-scale network," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 74-98.
    9. Pierce, Gregory & Willson, Hank & Shoup, Donald, 2015. "Optimizing the use of public garages: Pricing parking by demand," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 89-95.
    10. Geva, Sharon & Fulman, Nir & Ben-Elia, Eran, 2022. "Getting the prices right: Drivers' cruising choices in a serious parking game," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 54-75.
    11. Hamid Reza Eftekhari & Mehdi Ghatee, 2017. "The lower bound for dynamic parking prices to decrease congestion through CBD," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 761-787, October.
    12. Taylor, Dr Elizabeth, 2021. "Free parking for free people: German road laws and rights as constraints on local car parking management," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 23-33.
    13. Guo Chao Alex Peng & Miguel Baptista Nunes & Luqing Zheng, 2017. "Impacts of low citizen awareness and usage in smart city services: the case of London’s smart parking system," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 845-876, November.
    14. Boyles, Stephen D. & Tang, Shoupeng & Unnikrishnan, Avinash, 2015. "Parking search equilibrium on a network," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 390-409.
    15. Khordagui, Nagwa, 2019. "Parking prices and the decision to drive to work: Evidence from California," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 479-495.
    16. Abulibdeh, Ammar & Andrey, Jean & Melnik, Matthew, 2015. "Insights into the fairness of cordon pricing based on origin–destination data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 61-67.
    17. Gössling, Stefan & Humpe, Andreas & Hologa, Rafael & Riach, Nils & Freytag, Tim, 2022. "Parking violations as an economic gamble for public space," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 248-257.
    18. Winston, Clifford & Mannering, Fred, 2014. "Implementing technology to improve public highway performance: A leapfrog technology from the private sector is going to be necessary," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 158-165.
    19. Lehner, Stephan & Peer, Stefanie, 2019. "The price elasticity of parking: A meta-analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 177-191.
    20. Siqi Song & Chen-Chieh Feng & Mi Diao, 2020. "Vehicle quota control, transport infrastructure investment and vehicle travel: A pseudo panel analysis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2527-2546, September.
    21. Krishnamurthy, Chandra Kiran B. & Ngo, Nicole S., 2020. "The effects of smart-parking on transit and traffic: Evidence from SFpark," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    22. Kim, Jungyeol & Sarkar, Saswati & Venkatesh, Santosh S. & Ryerson, Megan Smirti & Starobinski, David, 2020. "An epidemiological diffusion framework for vehicular messaging in general transportation networks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 160-190.
    23. Rosenblum, Jeffrey & Hudson, Anne W. & Ben-Joseph, Eran, 2020. "Parking futures: An international review of trends and speculation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    24. Taylor, Elizabeth Jean, 2020. "Parking policy: The politics and uneven use of residential parking space in Melbourne," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

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    Social and Behavioral Sciences; Engineering;

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