Dear Science,
There’s been quite a bit of fuss over the City of Seattle proposing to raise street-parking rates. With this comes the typical hysteria: Businesses will be ruined. Nobody will park or drive in Seattle anymore. Drivers will be dragged out of their cars and beaten by anti-car mobs roaming the streets. Is there any evidence that more expensive parking hurts downtown areas? I know I’m not thrilled about having to pay $4 an hour the next time I drive to Capitol Hill or the Pike Place Market.
Seattle Driver
Right now, we can probably all agree, street parking is cheap. It’s free on Sunday and free after 6:00 p.m. Even when it costs money, the hourly rate is vastly lower than nearby commercial lots. Hell, even after the proposed rate increases and extension of pay hours later into the evening and to Sunday, parking on the street is a deal relative to the private options.
All sorts of interesting consequences arise from this divergence in cost. Cheap street parking means that most people are willing to search it out—forgoing immediately parking in a pay lot or paying to take the bus—in hopes of winning what amounts to a lottery for the cheap public street parking. At current rates, street parking in Seattle is frequently saturated, with all available spots used at almost all times. If you want to drive to a busy neighborhood, you’ll need to spend quite a bit of time to randomly chance upon an open spot.
No less than 13 studies in a variety of different urban areas have shown about one third of downtown traffic (at peak times) is composed of drivers circling the block, cruising for the cheaper street parking. (Unfortunately, such a study has not been done here, but there is no reason to believe Seattle’s situation would be any different. The mechanism for this cruising is decidedly in place.) All this wasteful cruising for parking means more congestion, more pollution, and more danger for pedestrians and cyclists—all demonstrated in subsequent studies. Based on all this, at least a few economists argue (based on mathematical models) that street parking should be priced to be just below the saturation point—priced so that every block or so has at least one open space at any given time.
Seattle Driver, based on the available data, the parking rate increase might make your life a bit better. You’ll be more likely to find a spot when you need one—still cheaper than a commercial lot. Your favorite shops and restaurants will have a higher turnover of guests—and do better as a result. You’ll breathe less auto pollution and be less likely to be mashed into a paste when crossing the street. Sounds like a deal to me.
Saturatingly Yours,
Science
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I’ll drive for hours and hours to find a free spot, so I guess I’m single-handedly making traffic worse in Seattle.
I didn’t realize that J Golob was a member of the Cascade Bicycle Club.
One of the best columns I’ve read.
Take the bus or walk. Then you’ll look like Parisians.
Parking downtown is usually cheaper if you park in a lot. The average price for two hours is around $6, which is slightly higher than the $2.50/hr price offered curbside, but there are a few lots which charge as low as $1.50/hr or less! The reason “we all agree street parking is cheap” is because “we” are all too stupid to shop around for a cheaper lot.
Of course, if you average the time 24/7- street parking starts looking cheap. Why not change the 8am-6pm hours until later- nothing should be free- instead of raising the rates?
Right on.
A couple of quibbles, though. Street parking is not always “vastly lower” than lot parking. There are places around the periphery where you can park all day on a Saturday for $5, for instance, compared to, uh, $5 for two hours on a meter. And, if you should overstay your welcome at a meter, well, now you’re paying a $40 ticket on top of the $5, and you can park in pretty much any garage you can find for less than that.
However, I’m not so sure that circling parking-seekers always present more risk to peds and bikes than through traffic. They’re going slower, for one thing, and they’re looking hard out for things (spaces). People cruising down the avenue are usually concentrating more on their phones in their laps than any stray obstructions they might pass. I’d rather take my pedestrian chances on Second Avenue than on Aurora. But that’s just another feature of the fact that street parking is good for peds; it’s a buffer.
Less so for bikes, with all the opening doors.
“Higher turnover?” You mean you think people will leave the restaurant earlier if they know their parking is about to expire? How about they just decide to stay home, since the crucial 6-8PM dining hour that used to allow for free parking near the restaurant now comes complete with an additional $8 tax for going out?
Maybe this plan will have an upside and the city certainly needs the revenue, but claiming nothing but positive consequences for such a dramatic rise in parking fees after the hours when the workers go home seems overly optimistic. There is almost certain to be a downside for some businesses.
If we raise the rates of street spaces, private lots will [likely] raise their rates equivalently, because they can. (a pay space is worth X% more than a street space precisely because of the convenience of finding a spot)
are you kidding? seattle parking is cheap? NO! and the tickets are seriously ridiculous! $40?!
Notice the block of 11th and Pine (Cal Anderson Park) use to be free 3 hours and YES drivers would circle and circle to get in those 100 spots. Over the summer the city made those spots now paid, out of say 100 spots, I’d guess 50 of those are wide open all throughout the day. SO YES, all of the circlers simply moved to another part of the area that has less of a parking window (average is 2 hours) and are out moving their cars instead of paying, while getting $40 tickets when time restrictions are not met!
If I cruise around the block in my green hybrid using electric power from the Seattle City Light’s Green Up and Green Power program, that came from wind turbines, does that mean it’s ok to waste 15 minutes looking for parking?
And how come I forgot to just park it at the parking garage where I get a free plug-in and priority spot, instead of running over that cyclist who didn’t hear me coming cause my hybrid is ultra-quiet?
IF I could work in an environment where it didn’t matter what I look like (which is really never anywhere, considering work code of ethics/dress code) I would always cycle to work. But considering I work at least 20 miles from my office I don’t think that is feasible. SO cycling is really not a option….. unless my office installed showers.
As far as taking the bus….. I’m on “call” as you might say all day. Relying on a bus schedule is really NOT feasible.
unfortunately for now I”m stuck to driving my ass to work everyday, circling the immediate blocks for parking. Taking my ass out there to move my car every two hours so I don’t get a ticket.. only to WORK, NOT play…
@10 I cycled more than 20 miles to work for a while and it was fine. I didn’t shower when I arrived and I didn’t stink either. The key is to get dry right away after you arrive.
Ride to work in a set of clothing that you do not intend to wear for the day. Cycling specific clothing is what I would use but if you are too cool for lycra then anything works. Once you arrive at work go into the bathroom and towel off your entire body. Your workplace has a stall where you can change right?
As long as you dry off all the sweat and put on fresh deodorant before work you won’t stink at all. Maybe we need to get dear science involved to explain why stench causing bacteria won’t grow as long as you get dry quickly after riding.
@6 “since the crucial 6-8PM dining hour that used to allow for free parking near the restaurant now comes complete with an additional $8 tax for going out?”
If $8 scares you to stay home, you aren’t in the crowd that has disposable income for restaurants anyway. Non-issue. Next.
@Packeteer –
I got a news flash for you. You did indeed stink, but people were too polite to tell you. I’ve worked with dozens of bicyclists like you who can’t seem to smell their own funk. I’m not anti-biking. I usually walk to work when I’m working in the city, but I think that a shower when you get to work isn’t a bad idea.
@8 “100 spots, I’d guess 50 of those are wide open all throughout the day”
If your scientific survey is accurate, then the parking rate is perhaps too high there.
It seems to me that the logical result of argument, given the premise you haven’t argued against, is for the city council to approve a higher parking rate ceiling, and then to use the new fee boxes, as well as some trending and seasonal data to adjust fees by neighborhood and time to maximize revenues and maintain proper usage levels.
Until Seattle is able to offer a better alternative to drivers, it is unacceptable to make it more difficult for them to access the downtown corridor. Public transportation in this town is a nightmare (especially for tourists), and bicycling is unsafe at best. It will hurt our economy as more people will head to the malls north and south of the city(especially with a bad winter coming where many bus routes will shut down). Make it easier (cheaper, cleaner, faster, more efficient) to take the bus, and safer to ride a bike then rise the costs of parking and tolls. Until then, anything Seattle does to discourage drivers will hurt Seattle.
Also, how about charging downtown residents an annual fee for zoned parking (like in most other neighborhoods). They can park in the same spot day after day, night after night, but they have to pay for it. That is a guaranteed income for the city.
@15
You really think public transpo in Seattle is a nightmare? I have nothing but awesome experiences riding it, especially if I’m going downtown…
@17 When i moved to Ballard a couple years ago I almost lost my job the first month there because the #15 would love to NOT show up. I’d wait for 3 bus times and the only buses that would go by all said to transit base. so yes metro is crap. I have lost count how many times the bus i need to catch, no matter what bus, is either very late or doesn’t even show up.
the fact metro wants to raise rates and cut service isn’t going to help a damn thing either.
Parking in town should cost as much as possible because car addicts are willing to pay anything to continue being lazy. Let’s double the cost of gas while we’re at it, the only change will be more money for public transit and increased internet whining from drivers.
I agree that transit and bike/ped options need to drastically improved before we can start ‘discouraging’ drivers. Problem with that is there is no money, and street parking is undercharged, so there. Revenue.
If you’re willing to shell out a hundred bucks a meal for a fancy restaurant and get uptight about paying a few more bucks for the convenience of on-street parking then well… damn. I don’t know what to say to you. You probably can’t afford to be eating/shopping downtown to begin with.
Also:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/s…
We are pathetically behind.
more people will head to the malls north and south of the city-
Not everybody. I’ll just wait longer to go downtown because I have to spend more $ or take 4/8 hours just getting there/back.
Leaving the Escort in P.County to take mass transit isn’t inviting. But what do I know?
Philadelphia recently raised its parking rates. Immediately there was an increase in spaces available on the street. I worked in a spa in a trendy area before the increase in rates. The massage therapists were always running out to feed the meter between appointments because it was cheaper for them to park in a space all day than it was for them to park in a garage. After the increase I went to a beauty school in the same area for a hair cut. The student complained that the increase in prices made it harder for her to park there all day (the students don’t have the flexibility to run out to feed the meter). This student lived in the city and not far away. She easily could have walked or biked to school.
My firsthand experience says cheap parking spots get taken by employees and people who park all day long instead of by business patrons. I never used to drive to that part of the city but after the price increase, there were so many more spaces available that I started to drive there more often.
People circling the block, looking for parking are not paying more attention to the road. They are focused on the edge of the road, not what’s in front of them, the color of the light up ahead, etc.
I have no sympathy for people who complain about the price of a parking ticket. While we can’t always control whether or not we get one, by and large, far too many people play the odds and then b!tch when they lose the gamble. Gambling only ever benefits the house.
If lawyers can bike to work, the rest of you have no excuse. I’ve known lawyers who ride to work for decades. They have to be clean and well groomed.
Fuck that. Some people HAVE to drive. As a photographer, do you expect me to take 2000 dollars worth of equipment on the bus? Not likely. Think about the arborists and contractors and everyone who does not have the luxury of taking our shitty transportation alternatives. I bike when I can but it can be scary out there. When I bike in Portland I feel like I am a free bird. BUILD BETTER BIKE LANES! Make biking an easy alternative instead of a frightening one.