A seemingly greedy movie by a baseball owner could be a green solution to downtown's parking shortage. For the past two years, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, desperate to get attendance up at their games, allowed free parking in the stadium lots. Now, they will charge if your car has less than four people in it (only $10, which equals 30 seconds on a San Francisco side street, but I digress). 

While the intent was green as in money, and not green as in trees, I think they're on to something here. Imagine if the two manned parking garages downtown gave you one colored ticket (say, yellow) if you entered the garage solo, another colored ticket (blue) if you entered with one passenger, and a third (green) if you entered with three or more people in the car. The first tier could be given a higher rate than is currently charged — $4/hour seems reasonable, with a $20 cap. Blue tickets would pay the current rates, and green tickets would enjoy free parking all day.

I'm not sure how monthly passes would work, and the system would need to change to a human gatekeeper on entry at both garages, but it's a germ of an idea. If we want the same amount of people (or more) coming downtown everyday for the sake of the economy, but fewer cars for the sake of the environment, why not give something like this a whirl? 

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