On-street parking and congestion

Cruising for on-street parking is responsible for about 30 percent of the traffic in central business districts, UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup said in an op-ed piece in the March 29 New York Times. Shoup used the Times article to promote the idea of pricing metered parking at variable rates throughout the day (through trial and error), so that about 85 percent of the curb parking will be occupied at any particular time. This, he argued, can reduce cruising and congestion.