According to last week’s New Haven Independent, New Haven may be joining other cities that have embraced cutting-edge parking management:

With motorists circling the block to find elusive downtown parking spots, aldermen are proposing a “dynamic” solution.

It’s called “dynamic parking.” And it’s one of several ideas that East Rock Aldermen Justin Elicker said he hopes a new city working group on parking will consider.

Dynamic parking, invented by parking guru Donald Shoup, refers to a system in which parking fees rise and fall according to demand. For instance, during the busiest part of the day downtown, it might cost $2 to park for an hour. When there are fewer cars around, it might be only $1.

The on-street parking working group that Aldermen Elicker, Roland Lemar, and Mike Jones have proposed creating would also study other ways to make parking more convenient, like pay-by-phone. It is not connected to a controversial plan, supported by Mayor John DeStefano, to “monetize” the city’s parking meters.

The article does leave out one of the key rationales behind dynamic parking. It suggests that the reason higher peak-period prices work is because drivers switch to transit, which is true but not the entire story. Smart pricing also frees up curb space by incentivizing long-term parkers to use off-street lots and garages. In New Haven, someone who parks for five hours will find it cheaper to park on the street than in most garages. ($6.25 on-street versus $8 in the Air Rights Garage, for example.) That’s not a pricing scheme that makes sense on commercial streets where turnover is important.