Michcael Cooper reported on an initiative by San Francisco to reduce the time spent looking for a parking spot through utilization of the laws of supply and demand. Highlights include:

• San Francisco is slowly implementing variable rate parking meters – meters that raise or lower their prices based on supply and demand.
• Prices could soon reach as high as $6.00 an hour for the most sought after spots.
• The overall aim is to have at least one open spot in each parking area.
• People have raised concerns that this could segregate the poor and the rich since it might close off certain areas from the poor.
• City officials respond that the money raised goes into providing mass transit and so ultimately benefits the poor.

To read more about the Professor that started it all, the role that mobile phones have to play, and what the evidence so far suggests about the effectiveness of the policy, click here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution