Reply to S/O What should MoCo do about parking in downtown Bethesda

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I've only parked in a County garage in Bethesda maybe once or twice.  IIRC there were plenty of spaces.  Are there always spaces available on weekends, despite it being free?

As an economist, that suggests that it should remain free - the market clearing price is zero - to put it another way, it provides value to people parking at no incremental cost, and putting on a fee would reduce that value.  (that ignores both the external costs of people driving in, and the benefits to retail, which as a swag I am assuming balance out)

But it also suggests that building more off street spots is probably not worthwhile, as the demand is simply not that great.  [/quote]

As an economist, you should know that there's no such thing as free parking.[/quote]

Thanks Mr Shoup.

I noted above that there are external costs.  I did not discuss the opportunity cost of the County owning a garage, as I assumed the policy question at issue is not whether or not to sell the garage to a developer, but whether or not to charge for parking on weekends, given that the garage exists and is not repurposed into something else.

It is quite conceivable (and I think Mr Shoup would agree) that in some circumstances not charging for parking at a particular facility at certain hours, may well be the socially optimal policy.

I feel like this thread is illustrating something I (as an urbanist) believe.  That sloppy writing by urbanists can feed the war on cars persecution complex, and undermine urbanist goals.

In general most of our arguments for a more urbanist approach to parking in this region, are based on the need to price parking at a market clearing price, and have the govt be neutral about its supply. EG supporting higher (market based) prices for parking permits, opposing parking minimums.

In a few cases we support parking maximums, but that is largely due to the severe unpriced congestion costs imposed by additional auto trips at peak.

Now while in theory there could be off peak externalities great enough to justify (socially - not speaking in terms of a revenue source) higher than market clearing prices for parking, I think that is unlikely here, and I think pushing for that distracts from (and may arouse opposition to) more important urbanist policies, including policies on parking.  [/quote]

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