Optimizing Performance Objectives for Projects of Congestion Pricing for Parking

This paper draws upon the experience of the City of Los Angeles, California, with a demonstration project, LA Express Park. Since June 2012, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation has been using demand-based pricing to set the hourly parking meter rates in the city's downtown. Drivers were informed of the current parking rates and parking space availability for on-street parking spaces and for city-owned off-street facilities by a robust parking guidance system. For privately owned off-street facilities, the data were limited to location and current parking policies. The objective of the project was to reduce the time spent looking for available parking. Through the project's success, drivers had a better parking experience, and traffic congestion was reduced. For Los Angeles, this intelligent system for parking management was essentially revenue neutral. The paper argues that increasing revenue should not be the primary objective of projects for congestion pricing of parking. New parking meter technologies have shown greater potential for increasing revenue, and public acceptance of pricing projects is greater when revenue growth is not the goal of a project. Cities are more likely to achieve success and acceptance if the goal of these projects is to reduce the number of under- and overoccupied parking spaces and thereby make finding parking easier.