San Francisco's Performance Parking Pilot Less Successful Than Hoped

In San Francisco, a performance parking pilot program has not had as big an impact as many thought it would. According to Michael Perkins, "Even with high rates, popular blocks still fill up, and other blocks remain under-filled even at low prices."

1 minute read

December 13, 2011, 12:00 PM PST

By David Zeetser


SFPark, the federally supported performance parking program, has been active since 2010, adjusting prices at parking meters around the city to try to influence drivers' behavior. So far, the effect has been less than anticipated:

According to Perkins, "This performance parking experiment is demonstrating that on high-demand blocks, drivers are very insensitive to price increases. The experiment is also showing that parking demand is highly localized, with price differences of as much as 100% continuing even through two adjustment cycles."

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