Cut traffic with smart parking and commercial vehicle policies.

Parking Policies and Commercial Vehicles: the easy first step

Where do you start if you want to deal with the combined ills of unpopular traffic, and budget-draining road costs? Voters understand the concept of paying for parking. A good set of parking and commercial vehicle policies can reduce traffic and balance budgets. Contact us for details on any of the policies below:

cash-outs mandatory: with Skymeter, employers can pay employees that leave their car at home.
• raise street parking prices to market rates: if you have to circle the block to find a spot, your street parking is too cheap
• raise parking fines: low fines reward people who don’t pay. Skymeter-equipped drivers can avoid accidental tickets.
• set street parking prices by length of stay to open spots. For instance, charge $2 for the first hour, $10/hr thereafter.
• do time-of-day pricing: adjust prices based on the time of day, to optimize revenue and ensure a consistent fill rate.
• charge delivery trucks per minute to stop on major roads, blocking traffic; unlike tickets, they can pass the cost on to customers.
• implement an idling bylaw where commercial vehicles pay per minute to idle, as opposed to parking.
• charge tour buses for entering or parking downtown: insist that only buses with Skymeter may park in designated downtown areas.
• shift taxi and limo licensing to per mile (or km) instead of a yearly fee.

Encouraging Private Sector Solutions

Any pay-per-use adoption by the private sector will benefit a city’s traffic. People who pay per use drive smarter and less.

• pay-per-use insurance reduces driving by about 10%; policy changes require lobbying and success at the state government level.
• having major fleets adopt green driving policies can help clean your city's air. Set an example with your municipal fleet.
• encourage car sharing, innovative car rental, carpooling or ride sharing solutions, to get people paying per mile (or km).
• if a local dealership switches to usage-based leasing and usage-based repairs insurance this will also result in smarter driving.

Emissions Fees

Skymeter makes it possible for a city to charge direct fees on greenhouse gas emissions inside city boundaries. This allows driver fees to vary based on driving behavior and type of vehicle.

Road User Charging or Congestion Pricing: the ultimate solution

Having drivers pay per mile (or km), with the price varying based on the time of day, type of car and level of traffic, is seen by some as the ultimate public policy solution. Cities such as Singapore, Stockholm, London and Milan already have limited types of road user charging in place. With Skymeter, any type of per-mile / km urban road pricing program can be set up.

If you want to do road user charging, a strong communications plan is absolutely crucial. Privacy, both real and perceived, is a key issue. Voter mistrust of government is a second concern: use of funds raised must be transparent. Project naming is important. A "pricing" plan has obvious costs. The benefits, in faster travel time, are not as obvious to voters until the system is running. An initially unpopular policy that is ultimately appreciated can only be implemented by strong and visionary leaders.