Permit Parking and Car Sharing

October 20th, 2012
car_sharing, permit_parking, transport
In towns with permit parking residents can get permits that allow them to park in any residential spot in the town. Very convenient. If you use a car sharing service instead of owning a car, however, permit parking is off limits [1]. People using these services decrease the demand for parking in that they increase the residents-to-cars ratio, so conveniences that apply to owning but not sharing are harmful.

Proposal: towns with permit parking change their laws so that residents who don't own a car may sell their permits to car sharing services. Being able to rent a zipcar with Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston permits would be awesome.


[1] You generally can't use your visitor parking permit on a car that you've rented. And even if you do, visitor permits are usually zoned much more tightly than resident permits.

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