Theory versus implementation in congestion-based parking pricing: An evaluation of SFpark, 2011 to 2012

The authors studied how changes in meter prices influenced the availability of on-street parking during the first year of operation of SFpark, a federally funded experiment in market-priced street parking in San Francisco. The authors supervised observations of more than 13,400 vehicles parked on a subset of dynamically priced and control blocks in spring 2011, fall/winter 2011-12, and spring 2012. Hourly meter rates changed significantly in the majority of cases and prices rose in about half of cases. But while one would expect price increases to be associated with better parking availability, the opposite was true. Blocks where prices rose also saw less carpooling and longer parking spells. These unexpected relationships were robust to controlling for the parking zone, the previous price level, the industrial and employment composition of the block, and the weather. The authors argue that price changes may have to be larger to increase parking availability; that reaching equilibrium parking prices may take longer than with road pricing; and that cities may have to target price adjustments to minimum vacancy, rather than average occupancy.