Bob Sirott's One More Thing about city parking - New York News | NYC Breaking News

Bob Sirott's One More Thing about city parking

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CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -

One more thing, about what you were doing at some point over the weekend.

There were many activities in and around Chicago on a busy summer weekend, which means at one time or another most of us were engaged in a pastime we all hate: looking for parking.

And now, no less than a Duke University Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics has come up with a computational approach to help us.

Professor Dan Ariely, who also writes for the Wall Street Journal, was asked how to decide whether to pay for parking in a lot, or drive around looking for a cheaper or free spot.

Get a pen and paper out because you'll want to remember this.

The professor's formula: figure out how much money an hour of fun out of the house is worth and compare that with the time it takes to find a parking spot. So, if the hour is worth $25 dollars, and searching for parking takes a half hour, then any amount less than $12.50 that the lot charges would be worth it. Get it?

So if you really want to feel good about paying a lot for parking, don't short-change yourself on how much money an hour out of the house is worth to you.

Based on the professor's rationale, if you're really desperate to get out, you might be able to justify hiring a driver!

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