Seattle parking 'surge pricing' fears spark social media outrage

Could surge pricing hit Seattle street parking? A social media post has frustrated and confused drivers. Fox 13's Dan Griffin is in Belltown, where city officials are pumping the brakes on a misunderstanding. Parking in Seattle is already tough, and it can get expensive. Now a social media video has some drivers worried it's about to get worse. I see people get lucky, a lot of circling. Finding street parking is a modern-day gold rush in Seattle, and a new SDOT video is balancing supply and demand. It's called performance-based pricing. And people like Robert Smedley... Because demand is different depending on where you are and what time it is, so are the rates. Worried surge pricing is coming. The city's banning formative pricing at grocery stores, so why would we do that for an everyday thing that you're going to have to do anyway? The video highlights monitoring how street spaces are used... When it's really hard to find a spot, we may need to raise them. We met Daisy, who was lucky enough to find one Monday. For me, I think it's too much, yeah. She knows the struggle. Every time it's too hard to find parking, too, and it's expensive. Social media users slammed the SDOT video as promoting dynamic and surveillance pricing. But SDOT says nothing has changed. Rates have been based on data since 2010. The video was meant for a web page with full context. It ended up on social media without it. That would be a failure on communication on their part. Because by the way it was presented, it makes it sound like come game day, it's twice as expensive. While there won't be surge pricing the next time you go to pay, SDOT says rates will still adjust about two or three times a year with the next rate change set for years in. Reporting in Belltown, Dan Griffin, Fox 13 News.