Revision of Stanford’s Parking Permit System

// projects / parking permits

The main goal of the project is to encourage wiser driving habits, reducing fuel consumption and traffic on campus. Those of us working on the project thought that we could approach these goals through one or both of the following changes:

a. Set permit prices corresponding to the fuel efficiency of a specific vehicle (less efficient vehicles pay more for their permits, high efficiency vehicles save)

b. Implement a rewards program targeted towards on-campus residents, where participants will be eligible for a rebate on their parking permit based upon the amount of fuel they save by driving less.

In option b, there would be a target distance that each permit holder would have based upon the fuel efficiency of their car which is set so that X gallons of fuel are saved per quarter or per year. If one drives under his or her target distance, then they have saved fuel and a rebate will be issued based upon the amount of fuel they have saved.

This was the general idea of the proposal. It was not accepted per se, but Parking and Transporation strongly agreed with the goal of the proposal, and considered ways of doing the same thing without making it seem so. They seemed reluctant to enter into programs of behavior change outright, but in some sense making people drive differently is all about behavior change. This project has potential to succeed in the future, given more work with P&TS.

This was written by Greg Hulburd in March 2006. If you have any questions, please contact Greg at ghulburd@stanford.edu.