Parking fees and congestion

https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-0462(92)90028-YGet rights and content

Abstract

Congestion can be caused by through-traffic and by traffic destined for the area where consumers park. It may appear that congestion should be reduced by increasing the price of parking. This paper shows that if road usage is suboptimally priced, then a lump-sum parking fee can increase welfare, but a parking fee per unit time does not. Indeed, an increase in the price of parking induces each person to park for a shorter time, allows more persons to use parking spaces each day, and can thereby increase traffic. For the same reason, consumers may prefer that parking not be free.

References (8)

  • Thomas J. Higgins

    Road-pricing attempts in the United States

    Transportation Research

    (1986)
  • Richard Arnott et al.

    A temporal and spatial equilibrium analysis of commuter parking

  • Robert E. Burns

    Urban road pricing through selective parking taxes

    Transportation Engineering Journal

    (1972)
  • JoséA. Gomez-Ibanez et al.

    Downtown auto restraint policies: Costs and benefits for Boston

    Journal of Transport Economics and Policy

    (1980)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (152)

  • Managing parking with progressive pricing

    2023, Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
  • Microsimulation parking choice and search model to assess dynamic pricing scenarios

    2022, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
View all citing articles on Scopus

Glazer acknowledges the support of the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California, of the University of Tampere and of the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation. Niskanen acknowledges the support of the Henry Ford Foundation. We thank Robin Lindsey and Kenneth Small for their comments.

View full text