ABSTRACT
Charging drivers for parking on a residential street may seem like charging children for playing in a public park. In residential neighborhoods, Parking Benefit Districts (PBD) resembles conventional Parking Permit Districts but differ in three important ways. To create political support for right-priced curb parking in commercial areas, some cities have created PBD that spend the meter revenue for public services on the metered streets. Distributing meter revenue with power equalization seems fairer than the usual policy of installing parking meters in neighborhoods that have a parking problem and then spending all the revenue anywhere in the city. Residents could then directly compare the benefits of free parking that is hard to find and paid parking that is guaranteed. If the residents later decide to price both sides of the block, they would double the money available to pay for neighborhood public services.
