How the Google bus controversy is revolutionizing urban economics
San Francisco just announced a deal with the much-maligned private tech buses to charge them a fee for using city bus stops. Under the reported terms, the buses that shuttle commuters to and from Silicon Valley will pay the city about $100,000 a year — about a dollar a day per stop. The response so far has focused on whether or not this appeases the protestors, but that misses some of the larger picture: San Francisco just decided how much curb space is worth.
"They've established that there's an economic value to having dedicated curb space," says Columbia University planning scholar David King. "This is a huge issue if we're thinking about not just the shuttle buses but taxi services, ride-sharing services, and other things that could really take advantage of having space at the bus stops."
What San Francisco has (seemingly inadvertently) done is expand the discussion of street pricing beyond parking spots to the rest of the space at the curb. Since city dollars pay for city streets, giving out free space at the curb is a de facto taxpayer subsidy that creates traffic and encourages driving. That's exactly why some cities (including San Francisco) have embraced progressive policies that charge a market rate for street-parking spots in commercial districts.
But what would happen if the whole curb were priced? Transit vehicles should surely get an exemption to dwell there, but what about Chinatown buses, or delivery trucks, or Uber and Lyft and Sidecar drivers, or even official taxis? How long must a vehicle hog the curb to need a curb permit? Will cities that generate revenue from curb space be more inclined to eliminate existing paid parking spots in areas where the street might be used more efficiently for another purpose?
"We should either allocate space at the curb economically and let everyone choose how much to pay — though that includes the transit agency — or we should just enforce restrictions," King says. "But bus stops become an oasis, a place to stop."
http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/01/did-san-franciscos-google-bus-deal-just-set-price-curb-space/8071/
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