Portland Seeking the Right Price for New Permit Parking

With several Portland neighborhoods adding overnight permit parking, the city will be tackling the issue of how to price the new permits.

1 minute read

October 7, 2015, 7:00 AM PDT

By jwilliams @jwillia22


What’s the best way to determine the cost of a parking permit? In Portland, the city’s consultant Nelson\Nygaard has advised that the decision should be made by city staff and not be left to elected officials where "conversations quickly get so emotional and irrational that they should never be argued at city council."

BikePortland’s Michael Anderson spoke to experts around town to get ideas about how an overnight permit parking program proposed for several neighborhoods can be implemented and priced fairly. The ideas, listed below, include proposals to allow residents to sell unneeded permits to nearby businesses or voluntarily pay more for each permit to help fund neighborhood infrastructure. The four ideas include:

  1. City staff could take an informed guess about the right permit price and see what happens
  2. The city could let neighborhood groups add to their district's permit price and use the money for things they want
  3. The city could let people resell permits they don't need
  4. The city could sell permits with a Vickrey auction

Portland's City Council will be holding a work session this week to discuss the city's parking reform process.

Thursday, October 1, 2015 in Bike Portland

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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