Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
--- Gustavo Lacerda (mediaone) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What if you're parked at home, and there is an unexpected shortage of spaces? If you are at home in your garage or driveway, there is no parking meter charge. But if you are in front of your home in a public street with meters, then, yes, you pay the current market rate. It is not your property. If you're surprised by an $800 charge for an unusually tight night, You need not be surprised if you check what the current hourly rate is. If you leave your car for long periods of time without checking the rate, yes, you could be surprised by the bill, but then you should know in advance that you are vulnerable to a variable charge. Metered parking is supposed to be short term. If you want to park for a long time, either park in your driveway or go to a parking lot or parking structure where they have fixed rates. Your example is extremely unlikely, since at night there is usually plenty of parking. (A) A system in which the driver gets a short-duration, (say 24h or 10h, it's the driver's choice) lease for the spot. The price for available spaces fluctuates, but once you park (i.e. sign the lease), the terms of the lease become fixed. That would be fine for a parking structure. But street parking requires availability, which is best met with a dynamic fee that eliminates congestion. Street parking is meant for short periods of time. High rates imply that is what folks are willing to pay. If you are not willing, don't park there. Continuously high rates become a signal to provide more parking. Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com
Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
Robin Hanson wrote: Why not let those who want to trade parking futures? This is an interesting, clever suggestion, but it still strikes me as a bit Rube Goldberg-ish. I have a feeling that regardless of the state of current or future technology, a preannounced, fixed (but occasionally modified) tariff of parking rates that is set at the proper level will bring almost as much gain in efficiency as a variable tariff but at a significantly lower social cost (especially when search costs and customer frustration are considered). After all, if variable pricing were such a wonderful idea, wouldn't supermarkets charge $20/gallon for milk whenever the TV weatherman said that a blizzard was coming? I'm not convinced that the technology to make a variable tariff economically optimal really exists yet (or if it exists it's not ready for prime time). It's not enough to have meters that can set real-time efficient prices; it's also necessary to have some convenient way for customers to find out what those prices are at any moment (presumably an Internet connection in your car or something equivalent). Otherwise, you wind up driving around stopping at parking spaces to look at the fare and then having to go somewhere else and repeat the process until you find a space that costs a price you're willing to pay, and all the while you curse the person who thought up this crazy parking system that has all sorts of empty parking spaces that you can't use. I suspect that parking meter owners would find it more profitable to have a preannounced tariff. This wireless information service in your car will cost money, which will lower the money that customers can spend in parking meters. A fixed tariff would allow the owners to capture more of the social surplus. Also, fewer customers would be alienated into never coming back. Respectfully, James Haney
Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
--- Gustavo Lacerda [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Are you suggesting a system that is sensitive to the market conditions at the exact moment in time (i.e. dynamically priced)? Yes. but such a system would be hard to implement. The technology already exists. Can you think of an existing analogous system in a similar market? Toll roads that charge according to how much congestion there is. Computer systems where users bid for time. Any kind of auction system for renting a resource during some time. Would there be a bound to the charge per time? No. The charge should be just high enough to eliminate congestion so that there is usually a parking space within one or two blocks. The parking spaces would be more attractive if they offered some sort of guarantee. The guarantee is to be able to find a space. That is what the parkers would pay for, the highest bidders getting the space during those times. Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com
Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
I've been sitting back on this, but now I have to enter the debate... A fully floating tariff for parking meters that is entirely based on reducing congestion may be efficient, but it is a false efficiency. People want to have a general idea when they get in their car to go somewhere as to how much it will cost to park. Refusing to provide this information to customers is not efficient. It's true that with a preannounced price schedule, you cannot completely eliminate congestion, but the goal should not be to eliminate congestion but to achieve the optimal level of congestion. Occasional congestion as a result of unforeseen circumstances is no big deal; it is regular, predictable congestion that we should be trying to eliminate. (This goes for toll roads, too.) I think some of the more interesting possibilities with privatized parking spaces would be: 1) The possibility of local business to validate (i.e., provide discounts for) the parking of customers who park on their street. 2) A potential reduction in NIMBY-ism. When I was living in San Antonio, Texas, they were in the process of designing the Alamodome. There was a big outcry among residents near where that building was going to be located that the stadium was not building enough parking spaces. I met a guy involved in the project who said, Ideally, we shouldn't build ANY parking because then people would automatically look for somewhere else to park instead of circling around an already full parking lot. The residents didn't like the idea of their neighborhoods being regularly invaded by large numbers of basketball fans (some of whom would likely be inebriated). Well, if the neighborhoods owned the parking meters and could charge, say $20/hour whenever the Spurs played, they might be a little less upset about all this. Respectfully, James Haney
Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
On Friday 15 February 2002 23:55, you wrote: --- Gustavo Lacerda (mediaone) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What if cities decided to privatize on-street parking spaces? I imagine that this could be a market failure in mixed residential-commercial neighbourhoods. The reasoning is that most cars spend the night at residences and the day at business locations. The market solution would be electronic parking meters that flexibly charge just enough to avoid congestion at any time of day or night. Are you suggesting a system that is sensitive to the market conditions at the exact moment in time (i.e. dynamically priced) ? This is the kind of solution I was looking for, but such a system would be hard to implement. Can you think of an existing analogous system in a similar market? Would there be a bound to the charge per time? The parking spaces would be more attractive if they offered some sort of guarantee. Gustavo
Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
I understand that some toll roads charge more during rush hour. It's not as sensitive a mechanism as Fred suggested, but it's not bad. Fabio I was looking for, but such a system would be hard to implement. Can you think of an existing analogous system in a similar market? Would there be a bound to the charge per time? The parking spaces would be more attractive if they offered some sort of guarantee. Gustavo
Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
I can't comment on the market failure, but watching a morning parking-space auction might be fun. -jsh __ Do You Yahoo!? Got something to say? Say it better with Yahoo! Video Mail http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: privatize parking spaces - market failure?
--- Gustavo Lacerda (mediaone) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What if cities decided to privatize on-street parking spaces? I imagine that this could be a market failure in mixed residential-commercial neighbourhoods. The reasoning is that most cars spend the night at residences and the day at business locations. The market solution would be electronic parking meters that flexibly charge just enough to avoid congestion at any time of day or night. Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com
