With the city looking to take a permanent $16 million bite out of its transportation budget, it's high time to talk about new transportation revenue ideas.

This week, I reported on the idea of "free-maket parking". In wonkier, less salacious terms, that's "variable parking"—essentially, setting parking rates at market value based on supply and demand for spots.

San Francisco and Seattle instituted variable parking plans this year, but it's not on the front burner for Portland. However, the city did experiment with the idea during Timbers' home games this year and got big returns.

The city decided to raise the rates of parking around the Jeld-Wen field during Timbers games both to raise revenue, increase the amount of available spots for neighborhood residents, and encourage people to bike, walk, or take TriMet to games (big news is that two-thirds of season ticket holders opted to buy TriMet passes along with their soccer tix).

During the Timber's 20 games at Jeld-Wen, the city doubled the hourly parking rate at the 449 meters closest to the field from $1.60 an hour to $3.20 and extended the paid parking time by three hours. Portland's SmartMeters already had the technology to set different parking rates at specific times, so there wasn't any major capital cost. In return, the parking rate change nearly tripled city revenue from the parking spots: from $2,205 on an average non-game Friday to $6,398 on the Timbers' May 6 match against Philadelphia. Take that as an average haul, and the city made an extra $83,860 this year by pricing its Timbers parking closer to market value.