Analysis: Self-Driving Cars Will Hit Cities in the Parking Revenue

Governing has released the results of a survey of the 25 largest U.S cities "for revenues that could potentially be hindered by the proliferation of autonomous vehicles."

In all, cities took in a total of nearly $5 billion in fiscal year 2016 from parking-related activities, camera and traffic citations, gas taxes, towing, vehicle registration and licensing fees. That amounts to about $129 per capita for all 25 jurisdictions. The reported data, however, suggests the introduction of self-driving cars could have drastically different effects, with some cities experiencing far greater potential reductions in revenues than others.

As detailed in the article, the difference in how cities collect parking revenue will account for big discrepancies in the potential effect of self-driving cars. Parking fines, parking fee collections, and special parking taxes all figure into the equation. Still, it's likely that the $5 billion figure under reports the total revenue related to automobiles. Sales taxes related to automobile-related purchases and gas taxes are not figured into the survey.

The article presents the data in ten categories for all 25 large cities, as well as specific and detailed insight into parking and automobile-related revenue each of the 25 cities.