BIKE: Taxing cars by the miles

[Richard Ryan]

The high cost of parking impacts more commuting decisions than anything else, including fuel & congestion.   Alan

Do you have any further evidence of this?  That's my belief too but 
I've never been able to back it up with more than personal experience.  Joel

I have two examples not of "the high cost of parking" but of when you charge "fair market" for parking instead of giving it away for free!!  Both examples come from Todd Litman of the Victoria Transit Authority.
 
see http://www.vtpi.org/
 
1)  In an urban environment, or a place where options to driving exist, if you charge for parking separately from rent (instead of giving it away for free), demand will reduce by 1/3(according to Todd Litman).  -  relevance to Austin - right now, code requires parking for residential units in downtown the same as in the suburbs - i.e. for each one bedroom apartment or condo, the developer must supply 1 1/2 parking spaces.  If there was a way for for the developer and the city to make an agreement that the developer would charge "fair market" (each space in a parking garage downtown costs +$10,000 equivalency +100/month rent) then the developer would only have to supply 1 parking space/unit since the demand would be 1/3 less.  The developer could then build more units on the same amount of land and consequently charge less for rent or sale.  In other words, it would have an impact on affordable housing.
 
2)  In a work location where parking garages are built for commuters - like UT or the state - if you offer cash in the paycheck equivalent to parking costs (approx $100/month), then 15% will take the extra money(according to Todd Litman) - which means you can build 15% less parking garages.
 
It is indeed odd that the average person doesn't stop to think that each additional vehicle in a family costs about $5,000/year, but if you start making them pay "fair market" for parking they will get rid of a vehicle.
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