People who have cars say that a lot. I know too many people without cars to believe that mass transit is unusable nationwide. The idea that having to pay for on-street parking will ruin people's lives is frankly ridiculous, and hasn't panned out anywhere these systems have been implemented.
If on-street parking is crucial to the well-being of humanity, then we can absolutely subsidize it for lower-income people, just as we do for so many other things we've deemed critical. It's as simple as issuing a prox card that results in free or lower-cost parking. With a centrally managed parking system capable of dynamic pricing, there is no barrier to this strategy.
Finally, the whole purpose of using taxes to drive behaviors is that you're not taxing the people who don't engage in the behavior. That's how it works.
I moved to a part of Chicago where parking is very expensive. I got rid of my car. I thought I'd need it far more than I did. The ~$500 a month I spent on the loan/insurance/gas/basic maintenance plus $200-300 for a spot (in addition to any other parking when you go places) is just an insane expense compared to the $2.25 train ride that gets me most places and $800/month covers plenty of $20 rideshares for areas not covered by public transit.
Most rides we'd take in NYC would cost at least 40-60 a ride. That gets blown really quickly when you visit family every other week, and have to take a kid to sports practices a couple of times a week.
Comments
People who have cars say that a lot. I know too many people without cars to believe that mass transit is unusable nationwide. The idea that having to pay for on-street parking will ruin people's lives is frankly ridiculous, and hasn't panned out anywhere these systems have been implemented.
If on-street parking is crucial to the well-being of humanity, then we can absolutely subsidize it for lower-income people, just as we do for so many other things we've deemed critical. It's as simple as issuing a prox card that results in free or lower-cost parking. With a centrally managed parking system capable of dynamic pricing, there is no barrier to this strategy.
Finally, the whole purpose of using taxes to drive behaviors is that you're not taxing the people who don't engage in the behavior. That's how it works.
I moved to a part of Chicago where parking is very expensive. I got rid of my car. I thought I'd need it far more than I did. The ~$500 a month I spent on the loan/insurance/gas/basic maintenance plus $200-300 for a spot (in addition to any other parking when you go places) is just an insane expense compared to the $2.25 train ride that gets me most places and $800/month covers plenty of $20 rideshares for areas not covered by public transit.
Most rides we'd take in NYC would cost at least 40-60 a ride. That gets blown really quickly when you visit family every other week, and have to take a kid to sports practices a couple of times a week.