Edward Glaeser: belief

Transcript context

…Let’s say we abolished all parking minimums. How big would the gains be? Are there potential problems from parking overflow? Not if you’re charging for the use of city streets, there isn’t. The problem is here, we’ve had some starting point, which we think people should have the right to park anywhere they want for no cost or for some severely subsidized amount. In a world in which city space is scarce, you want to charge as much, if not more, for parking in a slot on the city streets as the person who has a structured parking lot charges for their space. I think once you charge people for their space, there’s no reason to impose extra regulations on free parking. The overall quantity of social benefit, you’ve got to ask the great Don Shoup for that. He’s the one who’s written the book on the high cost of free parking. Let’s say it’s a suburban development. It’s Tysons Corner. Someone wants to open some kind of big-box store, and you tell them, “You have to have X number of parking spaces because otherwise, people will park in front of homes.” Maybe there’s some abstract equilibrium where all parking is charged for, but practically speaking, that’s not going to happen, right?…

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