Presumably some governmental authority. Some realtime bidding system would be nice, but that may or may not realistic. I think a realistic goal is that the prices should be set such that there's always 1-2 spots available in any given small area (say, one city block). If you have zero spots available, then the prices are too low and should be raised. If half the street is empty, the prices are too high and should be lowered. The prices will have to adjust based on time of day and day of week, etc.. It doesn't have to be be perfect to be much better than the system we have now.

> Some realtime bidding system would be nice, but that may or may not realistic.

Realtime bidding would be a UX nightmare, though I guess it's Econ 101 (i.e., ignoring lots of real factors, including transaction costs) optimal.

Yea, I don't really think realtime bidding is worthwhile for these kinds of transactions. It makes bothering with it too much trouble.

Rather, I think a municipality setting prices by fiat to be something that mostly gives the an approximate solution most of the time.