When a resource is underpriced, people tend to overuse it. In cities around the world, free or cheap parking leads to a familiar scene: drivers endlessly circling the block, waiting to happen upon someone leaving. Urban planners call it "cruising for parking."
In congested areas, drivers looking for a spot account for nearly 30 percent of traffic. In Los Angeles' Westwood Village, for example, drivers circled for the equivalent of 950,000 extra miles and burned through 47,000 gallons of gasoline in a year, just looking for a place to park.
