Resident only parking permit sign, 3rd Street SE, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC

Resident only parking permit sign, 3rd Street SE, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC
Originally uploaded by rllayman

This sounds counter-intuitive given my position on "free parking," but rather than the City Council enacting "performance parking" policies I'd rather have a transportation master plan and elements within, including an element on Parking and Curbside Management.

I think it's unreasonable to reserve all the street parking spots for residents since residents are paying $15/year for a parking permit, when the space is worth about $1,800/year according to Don Shoup.

So directing parking policy only at itinerant parkers misses a goodly portion of the fundamental problem of lack of inventory and demand greater than supply. As long as residents get a virtual free ride on the cost of parking (many households have more than one car and parking permits are not more expensive based on the size of the car and the number of permits granted to a household), this problem isn't going to be resolved.