FREE PARKING! Downtown

[remc86007]

^No, it would mean that the office workers would park their cars on the streets and no street parking would exist by 6AM each day.

[BridgeTroll]

He has a point. If all of downtown was free street parking would it not increase traffic and commerce for all downtown merchants?

You cracked the Noone code?  Please give us all the cypher as I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about...

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

^No, it would mean that the office workers would park their cars on the streets and no street parking would exist by 6AM each day.

Not really.  We already have the license plate readers installed on a few vehicles that could patrol downtown and ticket habitual violators.

Basically make all parking free with a 2 hour limit.  If your car is still in the same spot - first time is a warning, and then as you accumulate violations, the tickets get progressively more expensive.  Reset the databank every 30 to 45 days. 

That way, the people who visit every once and a while who might stay too long come away with just a warning.  No big deal; no bad taste in their mouth afterwards.

But, the office worker that's trying to game the system ends up with more and more expensive tickets.

[Gunnar]

Wouldn't it be easier to install parking ticket machines that have a "free parking" button which automatically prints a ticket for 2 hours and if you want to park longer, you can pay ?

[vicupstate]

^No, it would mean that the office workers would park their cars on the streets and no street parking would exist by 6AM each day.

Not really.  We already have the license plate readers installed on a few vehicles that could patrol downtown and ticket habitual violators.

Basically make all parking free with a 2 hour limit.  If your car is still in the same spot - first time is a warning, and then as you accumulate violations, the tickets get progressively more expensive.  Reset the databank every 30 to 45 days. 

That way, the people who visit every once and a while who might stay too long come away with just a warning.  No big deal; no bad taste in their mouth afterwards.

But, the office worker that's trying to game the system ends up with more and more expensive tickets.

This is essentially what Greenville, SC does (no warning tickets though). Some spaces are less than 2 hours, ranging from 15 minutes to 1 hour instead. For instance the closest spaces to the door of any bank are 15 or 30 minutes.  Because of how the spaces are monitored, you will typically get 5-10 gratis minutes before actually getting a ticket, although that isn't publicized.

There is also 1 hour of free parking in any city garage, which is nearly all of them, during business hours. All garage spaces that aren't leased 7/24 are free after business hours unless there is a special event. 

I have lived here over 20 years and go DT quite often at all times of the day and days of the week. I have never had a parking ticket, have paid to park only 3-4 times total in 20+ years.  I have never had to deal with coins or putting a ticket in my window. All I have to do is find an unused space, which is easiest to do during business hours. Office workers can't game the system because they will get tickets. The on-street parking is used by short term users, like myself, that are there to eat a meal, see the dentist, buy a gift, visit a gym or whatever.               

If there is a better system, I have not seen it and I have traveled US urban areas extensively. DT Greenville is very successful and the parking management is a big part of why. 

It is free to park in San Marco and Riverside/Avondale, so it is not like JAX doesn't see the difference it makes.   

[thelakelander]

Quite a few cities now feature free one to two hour parking on their main retail strip through their downtowns. Three that immediately come to mind are Detroit, Cleveland and Savannah.

Detroit


Cleveland



Savannah

[Noone]

He has a point.

I'll take it.