LSAT 154 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q6

LR Question 6 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: To discourage congestion, a city raised on-street parking…

QUESTION TYPE: Paradox

PARADOX: Parking costs went up. But restaurants that need short term parking spots for their customers got more sales.

ANALYSIS: This is a well known public policy issue. Basically, if you set the price of parking low, people take it for granted and will park their car all day. So it can be hard to find a parking spot.

If you raise the price of parking, people will only park if they really need to, and may park for shorter periods. So there will be more free parking spaces. Someone who needs short term parking to get to a restaurant will find it easier to get a spot. So, higher priced parking encourages people to come park, by making parking easier to find.

If parking is free, a single car may hog a spot all day. Whereas if it costs more money, you may see people park for an average of 45 minutes each, with three people per car on average. So instead of a single parking spot bringing one potential customers, in an eight hour day you’d see 32 customers on average.

Obviously you can raise the price of parking so high that nobody uses it. But in many cities, raising the price of parking somewhat can encourage shorter trips and hence more customers. Raising the price allows people to find parking more easily, bringing in more people.

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1. This doesn’t explain anything. The private lots are more expensive, so this doesn’t make it easier for people to park and go to the restaurants. Besides, the private lots aren’t new: they already existed when prices were low. An old factor can’t account for a change.
2. This just tells us what people thought. It is basically public opinion. Public opinion has nothing to do with facts. The district business owners could have been wrong! (and it seems they were)
3. This tells us what the staff of the businesses did. We only care about customers. Staff have to stay much longer at a restaurant than a customer does, so it makes sense that staff would seek different and cheaper parking.
4. CORRECT. More turnover = more people. E.g. five people using a parking space during two hours, instead of a single person. Since more people are in the parking spaces, there are more potential customers for the restaurants. And restaurant customers only need short term parking.
    
   E.g. a turnover of 500 cars means 500 potential customers for the restaurants. Turnover of 100 cars means fewer possible customers.
5. This just makes the situation more confusing. The business district has competition which has free parking. So why did the business district benefit from more expensive parking?

Recap: The question begins with “To discourage congestion, a city raised on-street parking”. It is a Paradox question. Learn more about LSAT Paradox questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.