Econ rules, parking doesn’t

Yesterday, I received a parking ticket in the amount of $25. My crime: Parking in the… Yesterday, I received a parking ticket in the amount of $25. My crime: Parking in the Oakland D zone when my permit is for Oakland B. I chose a parking space so far away from my house on Meyran Avenue because there were no spaces on Bouquet, Meyran, Louisa, Semple, Bates or McKee. At 10 p.m. the night before I received the citation, literally every space in Zone B was full.

The reason that there is not enough street parking in Oakland is simple: The price of a permit is too low. Think about it. Leasing a parking space in an Oakland lot for a year costs between $780 and $1,000. A street permit, however, costs only $20 for a year. Most people spend more than that on chewing gum.

Therefore, the decision of whether or not to buy a parking permit has nothing to do with money and everything to do with whether or not one can withstand the hassle of constantly finding a parking spot.

The purpose of a price system is so that, at the given price, everyone who wants the product can get the product. This isn’t the case with street parking. Even after you have paid for a street permit, there’s absolutely no guarantee that you will actually get the product, which in this case is parking.

Whenever this problem arises in a real market, the price increases. But if the price can’t increase, like when President Nixon placed price controls on gasoline, wait lines form and valuable time goes to waste. Unfortunately, you can’t even wait in line for a parking space.

The second problem with the parking permits is the inflexible zone system. Oakland has six parking zones: B, C, D, E, M and Q. The Parking Authority website says, “The Residential Permit Parking program was designed to free up on-street parking for neighborhood residents by preventing all day commuters from parking on residential streets.” This is a noble goal, but it could be accomplished with fewer zones: There is no one living on McKee who commutes to Juliet Street.

The proliferation of zones creates a huge “deadweight loss,” a term economists use to mean “a bunch of missed opportunities.” For example, there are always many free spaces on Coltart. But if you live on Semple, which is always packed, your permit will not let you park on Coltart, just two blocks away. As a less radical change, the Parking Authority could keep the current zones but let people buy permits for zones contiguous to their own at a higher price.

How much should a permit cost? It’s impossible to say, really. The city would have to get an economist to estimate a price and then experiment to see if it worked. At the ideal price, there would always be a few spaces open within one or two blocks of any street.

This is just like how at the gym, it’s best when almost all the exercise machines are being used but a few are always still open. Since a leased space averages around $900 per year, I would guesstimate that a street permit should run about $300 per year, since it’s probably about a third as convenient as a leased space. But that is just a guesstimate.

It’s important to keep in mind that the purpose of pricing street permits isn’t to raise city revenue – that’s what taxes are for. The purpose of pricing is to ration scarce parking spaces in a way that approximates their value to the users. Therefore, I see no reason why permits should be sold for a year. For flexibility’s sake, permits should be sold by the month, probably online. They should also be priced by the month. During the school year, when demand for spaces is high, the price should be higher than during the summer, when plenty of free spaces are always available. In the summer, a simple proof of residency might even suffice, with a small administrative fee. Likewise, permits should be cheaper for people who live deep in South Oakland, where free spaces are more plentiful.

Some people will claim that economics isn’t real, that permit pricing will do nothing to free up parking and everything to take money from poor college kids. However, consider that some students are on the fence about bringing their cars to Pitt.

If parking were more costly, some might say, “It’s not worth it anymore.” I, for one, was considering not bringing my car and instead asking my friend Dan to borrow his for grocery runs. Our bus system is good enough that most people don’t need cars. And, for anyone who really doubts the existence of options, there are hundreds of healthy Oakland bicyclers who would disagree.

Finally, since permits and leased spaces are substitutes, raising the price of permits should raise demand for leased spaces, thereby speeding the conversion of empty lots to leased spots. If you think there’s no room left, check out the empty lot on Meyran, just down from the bloodstains.

If you’re convinced, write a letter to our city councilman Bill Peduto. With enough of a movement, we could finally get parking reform in Oakland.

To join the cause, e-mail Lewis at ljl10@pitt.edu.