[beatgammit]

To be fair, many college buildings are provided in large part by donations, but I don't think the same is true for parking lots.

Ideally, each student would receive value from the university roughly relative to the tuition they pay, and things that are completely optional should be charged for separately. I think it's reasonable to charge separately for:

- cafeterias - housing - tickets to performances

Why should parking be treated separately? Providing parking for free just encourages more parking, which means more pressure to create more parking, etc. Charging for it separately encourages more efficient commutes, whether by bus, bike, walking, or carpooling.

The same goes for cities and other areas with limited resources. Charging for those limited resources encourages more efficient use of those resources, as well as alternatives. Parking is merely one solution to transportation, why should we subsidize it over others?

[afiori]

Parking fares are generally more about congestion controll rather than dissuasion