Ogni volta che scarrozzo sulla riviera ligure e vedo dei parcheggi gratuiti mi viene un coccolone.
Donald Shoup è la persona che meglio può capirmi. Si tratta del massimo esperto di "spreco da parcheggio gratuito". Il saggio " There Ain't No Such Thing as Free Parking" è uno dei tanti in cui ripete i suoi concetti.
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Le tre riforme da lui auspicate in materia di parcheggi...
... three reforms: First, adjust parking meter prices according to supply and demand. Second, return parking revenue to local communities for civic improvement. And third, remove minimum parking requirements that lock up useful land, lengthen commute times, and contribute to urban and suburban sprawl...
1) tariffare correttamente i parcheggi 2) girare i ricavi ai comuni 3) rimuovere l'obbligo dei parcheggi condominiali.
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Tutti alla ricerca di un parcheggio...
... Sixteen studies conducted between 1927 and 2001 found that, on average, 30 percent of the cars in congested traffic were cruising for parking... In another study, observers found the average time to find a curb space on 15 blocks in the Upper West Side of Manhattan was 3.1 minutes and the average cruising distance was 0.37 miles...
Penso che in Liguria quel 30 si alzi a 50%.
Milano cerca ossigeno nel parcheggio libero sui marciapiedi. Non funziona...
... Free curb parking in a congested city gives a small, temporary benefit to a few drivers who happen to be lucky on a particular day, but it creates large social costs for everyone else every day. To manage curb parking and avoid the problems caused by cruising, some cities have begun to adjust their curb parking prices by location and time of day to produce an 85 percent occupancy rate for curb parking, which corresponds to one vacant space on a typical block with eight curb spaces. The price is too high if many spaces are vacant and too low if no spaces are vacant. But if one or two spaces are vacant on a block and drivers can reliably find open curb spaces at their destinations, the price is just right. We can call this the Goldilocks principle of parking prices...
San Francisco è la città che più di altre è in cerca di soluzioni razionali...
... San Francisco has embarked on an ambitious program, called SF, to get the prices of curb parking right. The city is installing meters that can charge variable prices and sensors that can report the occupancy of each space in real time...
Depoliticizzare la questione del parcheggio è dura...
... Beyond managing the curb parking supply, SF park can depoliticize parking by stating a clear principle for setting the prices for curb spaces: the lowest prices the city can charge without creating a parking shortage...
Se i prezzi sono giusti i clienti compreranno, non preoccupiamoci...
... If the meters are priced right, cars will fill most of the curb spaces, leaving only one or two vacant spaces on each block...
Ne risentirà in modo benefico tutta la circolazione...
... Both common sense and empirical research suggest that performance-priced curb parking will motivate more people to carpool, because carpoolers can share the cost of parking while a solo driver pays the full cost...
Il parcheggio è la leva ideale per riformare il traffico...
... The reduction in traffic will come not from fewer vehicle trips but from shorter vehicle trips...
È bene che i ricavi vadano alle comunità locali. Un esempio...
... Old Pasadena, a historic business district in Pasadena, California, is the leading example of a battered area that dramatically improved after the city used parking meter revenue to finance added public services...
Altro esempio...
... When Redwood City began to charge performance prices for curb parking, it also removed the time restrictions at meters, and this has been the program's most popular feature... Removing time limits for curb parking is especially important if meters operate in the evening...
Una volta che i parcheggi hanno le loro tariffe di mercato non ha più senso richiedere parcheggi condominiali, sarebbe uno spreco...
... Reform is not only adopting good policies but also repealing bad policies. Requiring all buildings to provide ample parking is one such bad policy that cities should repeal... Requiring ample parking does give us all the free parking we want, but it also distorts transportation choices, debases urban design, damages the economy, and degrades the environment...
Inconvenienti dell'obbligo...
... First, parking requirements prevent infill redevelopment on small lots... Second, parking requirements prevent new uses for many older buildings that lack the parking spaces required for the new uses...
Già molti centri urbani hanno rimosso l'obbligo, le ragioni sono le più varie...
... Some of the reasons given for removing parking requirements are "to promote the creation of downtown apartments" (Greenfield, Massachusetts), "to see more affordable housing" (Miami), "to meet the needs of smaller businesses" (Muskegon, Michigan), "to give business owners more flexibility while creating a vibrant downtown" (Sandpoint, Idaho), and "to prevent ugly, auto-oriented townhouses" (Seattle)...
L'esempio di Manville...
... Deregulating both the quantity and the location of parking for the new housing was a key factor in restoring and converting the 56 office buildings Manville studied...
L'esempio della Silicon Valley...
... The area required for parking at a restaurant, for example, is more than eight times larger than the dining area in the restaurant itself...
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Siamo sicuri che l'auto di proprietà sia tanto essenziale?...
... Some people assume that America has a freely chosen love affair with the car. I think it was really an arranged marriage... Cities respond to increasing vehicle travel by increasing their parking requirements, and when citizens then object to traffic congestion, cities respond by restricting development density and requiring even more parking...
Non si capisce da dove arrivi l'insistenza sui parcheggi condominiali obbligatori. O forse sì...
... The profession's commitment to minimum parking requirements seems to be a classic example of groupthink, which Yale professor of psychology Irving Janis defined as "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."... Requiring Peter to pay for Paul's parking, and Paul to pay for Peter's parking, was a bad idea...
C'è chi propone: meno parcheggi per avere meno traffico. È il solito vizio di pianificare. Fissiamo i prezzi e lasciamo decidere agli altri, il nostro cervello è troppo piccolo per fare un piano sensato...
... The suspicion that feral planners are conspiring to restrict parking has a long history. In his famous 1997 article on "Cars and Their Enemies," the eminent political scientist James Q. Wilson mentioned parking four times, and all his comments are about restrictions: "heavy restrictions on downtown parking," "restrict parking spaces," "parking restrictions," and "higher parking charges...
Chi pianifica sbaglia. Inevitabile...
... For example, a large-scale econometric study found that minimum parking requirements significantly increase the number of parking spaces in cities. Bowman Cutter, Sofia Franco, and Autumn DeWoody (2010)... recent study in New York City also found that most developers build only the minimum number of parking spaces required by zoning. Simon McDonnell, Josiah Madar, and Vicki Been (2011)...
Chi tentenna nel togliere l'obbligo guarda al Texas come ad uno stato problematico. Ma sbaglia...
... Randal O'Toole says, "To find out what cities would be like without minimum parking requirements, we must turn to Texas, where counties aren’t even allowed to zone, much less impose minimum parking requirements."... However, even Houston, which does not have zoning, has minimum parking requirements, and they resemble the parking requirements in almost every other city in the United States.... Because minimum parking requirements are often the real limit to the density of development, Houston's parking requirements may help to explain a longstanding mystery in city planning: If Los Angeles has had zoning for a hundred years and Houston has never had zoning, why do they look the same?... Off-street parking requirements that satisfy the peak demand for free parking are, in reality, free parking requirements...
La distorsione del parcheggio come fringe benefit...
... Drivers who think planners are conspiring against their cars somehow manage to ignore the parking subsidies right under their wheels... Consider, for example, employers in downtown Washington, D.C, who offer free parking for commuters... The Internal Revenue Code creates the incentive to offer free parking... Parking cash out can eliminate this price distortion caused by employer-paid parking...
Ammettiamolo, l'opposizione viene sia da destra che da sinistra...
... One group in San Francisco, the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, has strongly but unsuccessfully tried to block SF, which is the city's new policy of charging market prices for curb parking. One flyer proclaimed: park Stop the parking meter hike!... Drivers who don't want to pay for parking often push poor people out in front of them like human shields, claiming that charging for parking will hurt the poor...
Il povero è usato come scudo umano. Tuttavia, se uno crede che esista un problema di povertà lo affronti nelle sedi adatte in cui si redistribuisce il gettito fiscale. Non quando si discute di parcheggi.
Molta opposizione deriva dalla scarsa familiarità col parcheggio a pagamento, cio’ dà un po’ di speranza...
... Some opposition to performance parking prices may be due to unfamiliarity, and only experience will change minds...
In questo senso Niccolò Machiavelli aveva già capito tutto...
... Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new....
Si noti che la proposta dei prezzi di mercato prescinde dalla privatizzazione dei parcheggi (che è a rischio monopolio)...
... Chicago privatized its parking meters and missed a great opportunity to make performance pricing a part of the deal. Chicago's primary goal for the concession contract was not to manage curb parking but "to maximize the amount of the upfront payment made for the Concession."... I agree with Cliff Winston's comment that privatized curb parking could result in monopolies that charge excessive prices...
Nel mondo, comunque, le cose non sembrano andare molto meglio, consoliamoci...
... Even countries with low automobile ownership have chaotic parking problems, as suggested by this description of Mexico City... Crowded cities in India also have problems with sacred cars, although only 14 percent of households in India own a car, and ownership is concentrated among the relatively rich...
