What a UMN researcher finds wrong with Metro State’s parking proposal

Can't even explain (MPR Photo / Alex Friedrich)
metro-state-bridge
Can't even explain (MPR Photo / Alex Friedrich)

First some neighborhood folks had issues with Metropolitan State University's plans for a parking ramp.

Now University of Minnesota civil engineering professor David Levinson and director of the NEXUS research group on transportation says the proposal to charge students and employees for it -- regardless of whether they use it -- is wrong:

So if you take the bus to the Midway campus (nowhere near the main St. Paul campus), you still subsidize parking in St. Paul. If you pay for parking in downtown Minneapolis and walk to the Minneapolis campus via the Skyways, you will subsidize a parking ramp in St. Paul. If you take an online course (distance learning), you still subsidize parking in St. Paul. this is so misguided from an economics perspective I don’t know where to begin.

Leaving aside the urban design aspects for now (see below) and the creation of a fortress campus, this is so misguided from an economics perspective I don’t know where to begin.

You can read his full post here.

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