Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University: Street signage differentiating "premium" and "economy" parking has been added to several streets adjacent to the Carnegie Mellon University campus in conjunction with a parking study being conducted by two faculty members at CMU's Tepper School of Business in cooperation with the City of Pittsburgh.
7 comments:
This seems like a pretty worthwhile project for Pittsburgh. I hope it takes hold on a large scale if it turns out to help our parking situation. I do have to say however, I am so fed up with having to pay for parking 95% of the places I go. First of all, I don't understand why we have to pay in the first place. Where I come from you only ever pay for parking when going to a concert or football game, which makes plenty of sense because thousands of people will be showing up. To me paying for parking here just feels like another way to tax us, because you either pay for parking or you pay to ride the bus. Secondly, I get that there is very few parking places here in relation to the number of people needing to park, but I don't understand why more common areas, like shopping centers don't have parking on the first floor like the target in East Liberty. Parking under the store makes so much sense for here, I guess its a money issue but if thats true they should just take all the parking meter money and put it into better parking whenever they build a new place.
This article particularly brought my attention since I had a serious problem parking in Pittsburgh. I don't know if it applies to CA, California had tons of free parking spots and street parking spots. And this summer when my parents came to help me moved into apartment, we had to pay every single time we parked for a while. Also, we had to go plenty distance away from the actual destination to find the place where parking is allowed. Having that experience, I think this project has important goal that it seeks. Although I still think that $2.25 per hour is still very expensive, I think by categorizing into premium and economy parking it is important to see the relationship between cost and demand and apply this result to make some changes in the future, so that future visitors will not have serious problem parking where they want to.
This is certainly an interesting project. Having been lucky enough to take a year of Econ last year, I think this is really a cool Micro Econ study. The notion of the supply curve adjusting itself on the fly to accommodate shortages or surpluses in the marketplace caused by fluctuating demand throughout the day is super cool! This definitely brings the city of Pittsburgh every so slightly closer to allocating resources in a socially optimal manner! If nothing else, anybody who desperately wants parking might actually be able to find a spot.
These signs do not change the fact that parking at CMU is a hellacious experience. In the past, I have paid upwards of $1000 for a yearly parking permit at CMU's facilities. I did not live close, so this was the most viable option for me. Although I have moved since then, and am a little bit closer to campus, it's still a bit of a hassle to walk every day. I was wait listed for a parking permit this year and have been making that walk, but in doing so I can't help but wonder why there are no better options available for off campus students. This rings especially true at a school where off campus living situations are not in the minority. Regardless of what signs are put up on paid parking, the fact that I am paying so much for a service at an institution I will already be indebted to for life is ridiculous. These researchers should focus their energy on changing a poorly deigned situation instead of changing the signage for it.
In and of itself, this experiment is interesting as it shows how much people are willing to pay for parking. In my opinion though, street parking fees are unnecessary. I can understand why parking in a garage would cost more (upkeep of the specific building etc), but as far as street parking goes, that concept should not remain. While I commend the Tepper School of Business and the people involved, I think there's another worthwhile experiment to be found. I appreciate them fine-tuning parking meters as well, but as far a adjusting prices based on time of day/ year, I think that is absolutely ridiculous.
I suppose the idea and concept behind this make sense but that seems like a rather drastic price difference for only a couple blocks difference in location. I would like to know where they got the numbers they decided to use. Either way this will definitely increase Pittsburgh's parking revenue quite a bit. It will also probably open up many more spots close to campus because people wont want to leave their cars there for very long.
This article caught my eye because very rarely do you read or think about putting a large amount of thought into the price of parking. It is one of those things that you don't think about unless it is presented to you, but once it is, it is completely obvious. I did notice the "Premium Parking" sign on the road a few days ago, and was a little curious what made it premium. I'd imagine revenue can definitely be maximized through this endeavor. It reminds me of the parking costs for stadium parking downtown; the further from the important building, the cheaper the parking.
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