The Price Doesn't Matter If You Don't Have to Pay: Legal Exemptions and Market-Priced Parking

Congestion pricing is an effective way to combat congestion, and market prices for curb parking are an appealing way to implement pricing, because paying to park is more politically acceptable than paying to drive. But pricing is effective only if users have to pay, and market-priced parking is vulnerable to nonpayment. To illustrate this problem, we survey parking meters in Los Angeles. We focus on legal nonpayment, and show that almost 40 percent of vehicles at meters are both not paying and not breaking any laws. The majority of nonpayment comes from vehicles displaying disabled credentials. These credentials undermine the effectiveness of priced parking and appear to invite substantial fraud.