Parking, transit and traffic: Evidence from SFpark

Chandra K. Krishnamurthy () and Nicole S. Ngo ()
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Chandra K. Krishnamurthy: The Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics, Postal: Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skogsmarksgränd 17, 90183 Umeå, Sweden, http://www.cere.se
Nicole S. Ngo: School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management, University of Oregon

No 2018:6, CERE Working Papers from CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics

Abstract: Demand-responsive parking pricing programs, in which parking is priced based upon occupancy, are increasingly being used in cities experiencing rapid growth as a way to optimize parking. Despite the potential of demand-responsive parking in minimizing parking-related externalities, there are few empirical estimates regarding the effects of parking management policies, particularly around transit usage and traffics flow. We use data from SFpark, a demand-responsive on-street parking pricing program for the city of San Francisco, along with a rich micro data-set on transit bus usage from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Using a difference-in-difference strategy, we find that SFpark is associated with sizeable increases in transit bus usage of about 21 and reductions in lane occupancy of 5 percentage points per census block. Our welfare computations suggest economic benefits of $36 million over the duration of the program (2011-2013) resulting from avoided pollution due to increased transit usage and from reduced congestion. These benefits easily exceed the nominal costs of the program. Our results not only suggest that demand-responsive pricing programs achieve their stated goals, but also mitigate many traffic-related externalities, yielding significant welfare benefits.

Keywords: Parking policy; transportation; mass transit; air pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L91 Q50 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2018-06-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tre and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:slucer:2018_006

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