PAYING for parking, says George Costanza, a character from “Seinfeld”, a sitcom from the 1990s, is like going to a prostitute: “Why should I pay when, if I apply myself, maybe I can get it for free?”

Americans still tend to think like Mr Costanza, in part because free parking is the norm in most places. But in a few crowded cities, and with the help of new technology, people are beginning to think about parking more cleverly. Over time, the result may be to change how America’s traffic-clogged cities work.

Free parking may sound like an unalloyed good, but the refusal of Americans to pay for—or indeed charge for—parking has created all sorts of bizarre incentives, says Donald Shoup of the University of California. People choose to drive when, if they paid the real cost of parking, they would walk or take a bus. And congestion is made worse. In some cities, Mr Shoup estimates, as much as a third of traffic consists of people searching for a space to park.

In Adams Morgan, a bustling part of Washington, DC, the problem is immediately apparent. The streets are clogged and drivers circle, looking for spaces to come up. Residents pay just $35 a year for a street-parking permit, but since demand outstrips spots, finding a space can be fiendishly difficult. Time-strapped commuters often don’t use their cars for fear of being unable to park when they return home.

In many parts of the country, politicians have long balked at raising the cost of parking, even as inflation has made it cheaper in real terms. In Boston, for example, the charge for parking on the street did not increase from the mid-1980s until 2011 (when it was raised by 25 cents an hour).

Times, however, are changing. In Washington, parking on the National Mall is soon to be metered, with the revenue partly paying for a bus service. The city is also trying to install meters more widely. In Buffalo, a small, dense-packed city in upstate New York, a new zoning standard proposes to eliminate all minimum parking requirements. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, city governments have experimented with measuring demand for parking and adjusting the cost accordingly.

San Francisco’s scheme uses sensors to estimate whether spaces are in use or not. Prices now vary according to the time of day, and are adjusted upwards or downwards each month to target particular occupancy levels. A study found that this helped to reduce the amount of time drivers spent looking for a spot by 43%. Mobile apps can help drivers find cheap spaces (though, ironically, most drivers will have to pull over before using their phones).

Convincing people to pay for parking may not be as difficult as it seems. Attempts to regulate parking through complex zone systems, time limits and other rules make life more difficult even for those who can find a precious space. In 2013 the government in Washington, DC issued 1.7m parking-violation tickets, taking some $80m in fines. If it charged for more of its spaces, perhaps it could get by with issuing fewer tickets.