Parking Meters are holding back Downtown Development

[marksjax]

I just witnessed a parking meter attendant issue about twenty or more parking tickets on Bay, Liberty and Market Streets between the hours of 8:45 am and 9:15am. Yes, they were parked illegally based on the fact that their meters were expired (no money in them).

Certainly my beef is not with the attendant as he is just doing his job. Although I did see him continue to write one ticket as the owner of the vehicle ran outside to put money in the meter in a vain attempt to avoid the ticket. No luck Bud, you gotta a $15 fine. I am guessing that the managers who run the parking division do not preach compassion and discretion evidently (gotta get that money I guess).

This is a daily occurrence and is totally unique to the Downtown experience.

Those people who received a ticket will likely now have a bad memory of Downtown as a result and will try and avoid visiting Downtown in the future.

My point is to raise attention to this one example of why, in my opinion, the parking meters and what the fines and anxiety they create entail are a reason that Downtown struggles to turn the corner.

I would ask the city council to seriously consider the removal of all or at least some of these outlying meters to test the theory I propose which is that parking meters are an antiquated idea whose time has passed.

You want Downtown to thrive?

Step One: Eliminate parking meters and the fines that go with them.

That's my opinion on Downtown Redevelopment.

Thanks for reading.

Mark Hemphill

[johnnyliar]

It's really not that hard to put some coins in the meter...

[fieldafm]

It's really not that hard to put some coins in the meter...

It's even less hard to choose to instead go to the very vibrant areas of San Marco and Riverside that don't have parking meters.

[marksjax]

It's really not that hard to put some coins in the meter...

That is the point I suppose that you do have to, in fact, put coins in a meter to park on a public street that is already owned and maintained by the general public in the first place.
The anxiety starts with: "Oh no I don't have any quarters!" or "Where can I go to get quarters?" (good luck with that).
And if you did have quarters then you have additional anxiety to remember to go 'feed the meter' so you leave your lunch, appointment, meeting to walk outside to go put more coins in the meter.
It creates an additional step that adds to the hassle.

[JeffreyS]

We have very little need for meters in DT a few stores like UPS, FedEx and the very front spots at the Landing need them the rest do not.  The purpose of the meters in Jax is to artificially stimulate the parking lot business.  Why we chosen to stimulate those lots baffles me.  There is plenty of parking in DT but the meters give the impression that it is a hassle.  Riverside and San Marco have much greater parking demands than DT and get by with 2 hour signs.

[Bolles_Bull]

Parking Meters are like, 50c / hr, parking tickets are only $15.  Some parking garages dt are $10/day.  If I want to park downtown for a day it makes more sense for me to feed a meter all day for $4.  This is silly.  Im taking up a nice curbside space to sit in an ofice all day.  Lots of my coworkers do this regularyl.  We need 2 hr free parking that is enforced if you go over. This will encourage all day visitors to use garages and improve the perception of DT for the casual visitor that just has a quick meeting or is stopping in for lunch.  Seems like a no brainer to me.

[carpnter]

Two hour parking is pretty much unenforceable because someone would either need to see you pull into the spot or there would need to be some other way of determining when someone pulled into a spot and once that car goes over the time limit there would need to be some type of signal or alert shown so those who enforce it would know that a vehicle has been there too long. 
Doing this would also make it difficult for someone to go back out and feed a meter if they needed to be there longer than 2 hours.  When I worked downtown I had a monthly rate and it was much cheaper than $10/day and I was very close to my building.   I'm more than willing to pay a bit more for the convenience of having a guaranteed place to park and not have to hunt for a meter that I need to feed every 2 hours. 

[fieldafm]

It's certainly odd that vibrant urban districts within a stone's throw of Downtown like Five Points and San Maco and within a couple hours drive like Savannah (pictured) and Winter Park (pictued) have two hour parking limits in lieu of parking meters... yet Downtown Jax has meters (and more paid parking spaces than vistors and workers combined).

Maybe there are some lessons to draw???

[fieldafm]

Two hour parking is pretty much unenforceable

Two hour parking limits are actually very enforceable and are in wide use nationwide.

[finehoe]

It's really not that hard to put some coins in the meter...

That is the point I suppose that you do have to, in fact, put coins in a meter to park on a public street that is already owned and maintained by the general public in the first place.
The anxiety starts with: "Oh no I don't have any quarters!" or "Where can I go to get quarters?" (good luck with that).
And if you did have quarters then you have additional anxiety to remember to go 'feed the meter' so you leave your lunch, appointment, meeting to walk outside to go put more coins in the meter.
It creates an additional step that adds to the hassle.

In modern cities you can pay via smartphone:  http://us.parkmobile.com/members/why-park-mobile/

[jaxlore]

I do agree this system is antiquated and like so many things need upgrading. How about the need to even drive a car downtown? Better bus\trolly\mass transit systems would eliminate the need to drive downtown!

[JayBird]

Two hour parking is pretty much unenforceable because someone would either need to see you pull into the spot or there would need to be some other way of determining when someone pulled into a spot and once that car goes over the time limit there would need to be some type of signal or alert shown so those who enforce it would know that a vehicle has been there too long. 
Doing this would also make it difficult for someone to go back out and feed a meter if they needed to be there longer than 2 hours.  When I worked downtown I had a monthly rate and it was much cheaper than $10/day and I was very close to my building.   I'm more than willing to pay a bit more for the convenience of having a guaranteed place to park and not have to hunt for a meter that I need to feed every 2 hours.

Actually, if you must enforce parking at limited time intervals, it's the cheapest way to do so. Since Jax doesn't seem to want to join the rest of the tech/smartphone app world, that same ticket writer would be provided with good shoes, a pole stick and a piece of chalk. They would then walk a route and mark the tires of cars. Making sure the loop took the allotted amount of time, if they come across a car with their chalk mark, then it gets a ticket. Being that this is how every city handled this in the 20th century, it is very enforceable. It would also have the added benefit of putting a uniformed presence on the street to help ease the fears of suburbians that they'll be violently slaughtered on the street by some wayward homeless patron.

[RMHoward]

It's really not that hard to put some coins in the meter...

Johnny, you have to remember where you are my good man.  This is a website/forum populated with folks who believe everything should be free and a living wage is owed to everyone.  Whether it be healthcare, wifi, or parking, there will always be some evil wealthy (preferably white) person who owes it to society to pay for their "stuff". 

[johnnyliar]

It's really not that hard to put some coins in the meter...

Johnny, you have to remember where you are my good man.  This is a website/forum populated with folks who believe everything should be free and a living wage is owed to everyone.  Whether it be healthcare, wifi, or parking, there will always be some evil wealthy (preferably white) person who owes it to society to pay for their "stuff".

[johnnyliar]

I thought he was being sarcastic?