Time for Boston to start charging for parking permits, councilor says

Car 1: 5^2 = 25
Car 2: 5^3 = 125
Car 3: 5^4 = 625
Car 4: 5^5 = 3125
Car 5: 5^6 = 15625

I would assume that a number of these households are five unrelated people living together, though (i.e. roommates), so that seems a bit steep. Maybe make it an escalating fee for people who have cars under the same ownership at the same household, i.e. the car collectors.

Or:

Car 1: 25*2^0 = 25
Car 2: 25*2^1 = 50
Car 3: 25*2^2 = 100
Car 4: 25*2^3 = 200
Car 5: 25*2^4 = 400

This scale probably makes more sense. In a household with five vehicles registered, the average cost of a permit would be $155. That's still less than most vehicles pay for registration, inspection and excise tax each year.

What do you mean it's not outrageous in Dorchester? For a single household to have 5 cars taking up public streets seems extreme anywhere.

Before Southie became the next hot place to live, the impetus for resident parking restrictions was likely deterring commuters from parking in the neighborhood and taking the Red Line or bus to their places of work. If parking was readily available on weekends, there would be less need to restrict it at those times, and there are pluses to not restricting parking in low-demand times if visitor permits aren't something the City offers.

20 years ago, much of the SoWa area was wide-open for parking. No street cleaning, no resident parking restrictions (apart from a couple of streets), not even any parking meters. Every single space was taken on weekdays (mostly commuters to downtown and BMC) but at nights or on weekends you could park pretty much wherever.

In my neighborhood (Savin Hill area), the hours are 10A-6P M-F, because we have a huge problem of people using the neighborhood as a free commuter parking lot for the JFK and Savin Hill T stops. It becomes difficult to park in general but on street cleaning days it's downright impossible. Unfortunately only some of the streets/blocks have successfully petitioned the city for permit-only parking so half the neighborhood is still an insane free-for-all.

In Southie, I believe the hours were set up as overnight because the bigger parking concern there is that there's not enough room anymore for residents to park overnight at their homes.

Every neighborhood has its own concerns and the restricted times are a reflection of that.

You currently don't pay the true cost of driving and it forces taxpayers that don't drive to make up the difference, sorry Charlie.

While congressional bailouts of the Highway Trust Fund have made this subsidy more apparent, it has actually never been the case that road users paid their own way. Not only that, but the amount of their subsidy has steadily increased in recent years. The share of the costs paid from road-user fees has dropped from about 70 percent in the 1960s to less than half today, according to the study.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/...

The state highway system needs $6.5 billion more than its budgeted revenue over the next 10 years to maintain roads, bridges, and tunnels, according to the report. The MBTA is set for the next five years, but after that it will face a $1.9 billion shortfall, brought on largely by diminishing federal funding and less state borrowing capacity, the report says.

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/re...

Socialism is for me, not for thee, amirite? But I thought there was no such thing as a free lunch?

Circling the block looking for parking creates traffic slowdowns and poor air quality, leading to increased medical costs & deaths in the neighborhood. Why not use a free-market mechanism: Set a number of permits equal to the number of available spaces, and hold an auction?

Isn't that the free-market conservative approach?