Parking fees enrage locals. Again.
Wellington City Council is considering lifting parking fees again because it thinks people are holding on to the spaces too long. The local paper disapproves, as does David Farrar. Now, I’m no expert on the local politics and they may be quite right that this is just a revenue raising measure, despite the council’s position that it’s about turning over parks more quickly. But let’s take the council seriously for a minute and consider whether it is so obviously stupid.
First, there’s nothing wrong with a local government body raising funds for the services it provides. It needs to do that but the question is how it does it. Rates are the most common revenue raising tool, but are not a particularly efficient one since they don’t correct any market problems. Now, parking obviously has an implicit price so it makes sense to raise some revenue from parking fees by setting the price optimally. That allows either lower rates or more service provision, depending upon electors’/ratepayers’/councillors’ (delete as you like) preferences.
DPF and the Dom Post contend that parking times are already optimal because they’re controlled by time limits in addition to the charges. However, there’s no reason to believe that the upper time limit is the optimal stay from a social viewpoint. Read more