Perhaps an ideologically pure performance parking system would exempt nobody from the new meters, but that would never fly here and nobody is suggesting that we do that. Besides, if we made residents pay for the meters, after burning DDOT to the ground they would probably drive to work more to avoid paying to keep their car at home, which isn’t a good thing.

So yes, the exemption from meters for residents would theoretically limit the plan’s effectiveness. But a system without the exemption would be hugely unpopular and a clear example of the medicine being worse than the illness.

Personally I would like to reduce the number of residents’ cars by making it a lot more expensive to own two or more parking permits per household. But few people agree with me and it is absolutely a political non-starter. For that reason it’s not even being considered as an option.

If not, then residents would just take the pay spaces (for free) and reduce the effectiveness of the performance pay scheme.

It’s still a good idea, but reducing the number of resident automobiles would probably have a more significant effect.