Parking Woes

[jomiy]

I stumbled across this article about parking issues in the City of Anaheim.

www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/abox/article_1599217.php

The article never mentions anything about pricing on-street parking or expanding transit service to eliminate automobile trips...Furthermore, the comments in response to the article are down right startling. Makes me ashamed to live in Orange County!

I think priced parking is something greatly overlooked in terms of enforcing policies that enhance the use of transit. I recommend "The High Cost of Free Parking" by Donald Shoup to anyone with interest.

[whitmanlam]

I've learned that generally, it is the lack of parking that forces people to use public transit.
If you raise the parking fees, whether it was with meters or permits, people will be willing to pay the higher fee, and will be considered a cost of living.

If it's too expensive, people are willing to park illegally, or move go shopping elsewhere.

Forcing them to use public transit by having less parking spaces available like denser cities do is smart for business in the long term. It will maximize scarce space that would otherwise be a paved lot.