You have an option to store it a vehicle, it's your choice not to use it. I was just calling out the "free" part of the argument, property owners are definitely not getting anything for free.
On-street parking isn't limited to property owners. Anyone can use it.
And no, not everyone can make the choice to use it. There simply isn't enough space, and if everyone drove then traffic would be horrendous. In Manhattan only 1 in 5 people even own cars, for example, and yet on-street parking is always completely full everywhere. So it doesn't make sense to offer it for free given that most people cannot use it. People who don't use it should not be paying for it and people who do use it should be paying their fair share.
Define "anyone can use it"? Most likely it's going to be owners or their tenants, to whom owners right of parking generally extends.
Regarding 1 in 5 people own a car, that I think pretty much works out to full parking everywhere, since the area of the street available for parking is definitely not 1 per capita, but probably way less.
I can also apply your logic to school system. Why am I paying school taxes if I don't have children?
