"While free on-street parking usually stays filled to capacity—if not over capacity—off-street paid parking underperforms."<p>Oh? Friends of ours used to live on T St. NW in Washington, DC, just east of 16th St. We eventually learned to take a cab there. But my recollection is that off-street paid parking just isn't there in that neighborhood. The downtown office areas of Washington have lots of off-street paid parking, but from what I see there are large swaths of town with strips of restaurants and bars surrounded by residential blocks, and with very little in the way of parking garages.<p>We did once pay to park to visit our friends on T. But the lot we parked at was dinky.