Surge Pricing for Parking Meters
Cheap downtown parking in Philly is both popular and insidious: The glut of circling drivers searching for $2-an -hour street spots means slower traffic, more road rage and worse air quality. The Parking Authority should take a page from the Uber playbook — as San Francisco and Pittsburgh have — and bump prices substantially, to around $7 for prime spots at peak times. This would change the supply/demand dynamic, leading to more open spaces. “Prices should be low enough not to discourage people who are coming in to go to a restaurant or shop, but high enough to discourage people from feeding the meter all day,” offers Rina Cutler, senior director at Amtrak and Michael Nutter’s former deputy mayor for transportation. For those all-day parkers? Off-street parking (a.k.a. garages and lots) with set half-day and day rates will take on a whole new luster.
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