Disagrees on SF Parking

June, 2009

Editor, Parking Today:
I greatly appreciate Parking Today’s efforts to promote market-rate parking. However, I disagree with your objections to using parking fees to fund transit. I think that this truly is a use that helps drivers and the San Francisco commercial districts, just like Professor Shoup recommends. If San Francisco did not have a transit system that works, most drivers couldn’t drive anywhere close to where they want go.
I also suggest that San Francisco parking garage operators should see that the parking tax actually helps them by nearly eliminating the construction of competing garages. The tax, though used to fund transit, actually maximizes the profits of private garage owners. San Francisco’s mistake relative to garage owners was to build too many publicly subsidized garages.
Howard Strassner
San Francisco