The economics of pricing parking

We treat parking as a common property resource and examine the benefits of pricing it. Without pricing, parking close to the destination will be excessive, and will fall off more rapidly than is socially optimal. The optimal pattern is attained under private ownership if each parking owner prices in a monopolistically competitive manner. When cruising for parking congests both parkers and through traffic, the benefits from pricing are substantially reduced. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.