The advocacy group Transportation Alternatives says raising the cost of curbside parking would help ease congestion in the city."We have all this unnecessary congestion on our streets from people cruising for that free or under-priced space," said Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. "If we charged just a little bit more for it, we'd be freeing up an extra space on every block."To push the point, Transporation Alternatives flew in a traffic expert who says cheap parking encourages drivers to spend long periods of time looking for spaces."If you slowly nudge up the price of parking until you have one or two vacant spaces along the street, then that's the right price. And you'll never know it until you try it," said Dr. Donald Shoup, a professor at UCLA and author of "The High Cost of Free Parking."A Transportation Alternatives study in SoHo estimated that about 20 percent of drivers were clogging the streets just looking for parking. Shoup says metered prices that vary according to time of day could change that."At times, the meters are simply too expensive, at off-peak, but at the very peak hour it could take $5," says Shoup.Shoup says that increase would make it expensive enough to convince drivers to stop cruising and pull into a garage.Drivers who spoke with NY1 had mixed reactions to Shoup's proposal, but a lot of them were skeptical. On the Upper West Side, many said there just aren't enough parking garages to meet the demand."There's a couple garages in the area on the Upper West Side that have closed," said one area resident. "So there's even fewer, less garage space. If you do want to go there, many times they're full."The problem is now buses and trucks, not cars," adds another. "Buses just pulled into intersections and they just sit there and nobody says nothing to them. If that was me, I'd get a ticket."The Department of Transportation has been holding community meetings across the city to discuss proposals such as that one, as well as requiring permits on certain streets.The DOT released a statement, saying: "We are actively looking to improve the way we manage the City's on- and off-street parking as a means to help reduce street congestion. We welcome Donald Shoup's input as we develop alternatives, and we look forward to meeting with him later this week."