Does Downtown Need Parking Meters?

[BridgeTroll]

On the lighter side of the parking debate... I found this last night on A&E.  A humorous show depicting the trials and tribulations of Meter maids, booting crews,... and of course irate people getting tickets.  Locations are downtown Detroit... and best of all... Philadelphia.

http://www.aetv.com/parking-wars/index.jsp

Below is a clip of some meltdowns... If you want to see parking enforcement getting verbally abused by citizens... this is a must see!...

http://www.aetv.com/parking-wars/video/?bcpid=45716781001&bclid=1426313266&bctid=1424665089

[Dog Walker]

Ock,  Paris also has Le Metro, rubber-tired and quiet with 5 minute head times.  300KPH Train de Grande Vitesse (TGV) that can get you to London or Lyon in under 3 hours with WiFi all the way.  Rental bicycle stands all over the city. 3G cellphone service everywhere.  Electric delivery vans.  All hybrid buses. Multiple pedestrian only streets in every district.

Yeah, you still have to pay for parking unless you have a resident's sticker, but at least their system is easy, flexible and you can use your bank card.

We are indeed behind.

[Ocklawaha]

You may have missed my point my friend. I agree that Paris or for that matter Bogota, Medellin or Cali are so far ahead of us we couldn't get a radar fix on them...

BUT!

In the area of requiring a fee to park, maybe ahead is really behind! SMILE


OCKLAWAHA

[finehoe]

Food for thought:

Free parking in Eugene not working as hoped: After Eugene, Oregon removed the meters from its downtown area, businesses are saying that it's not helping business, and the $500,000 in lost meter revenue probably should have gone to marketing their already free parking garage.

http://kezi.com/news/local/194321

[vicupstate]

^^ The articles quotes someone that criticizes the fact that people 'park for two hours while they workout".  I sure the gym owner wouldn't have a problem with that.  There seems to be a need for 30 minute spaces mixed in with the 2 hour ones.  That is easily fixable, and Greenville  does just that (also 15 and 60 minute spans).  

Also, this is anecdotal, not a genuine study of the results.

Nevertheless, thanks for sharing. 

[tufsu1]

agreed Vic...I have advocated that if we do away with our meters, we need to have time-limited parking...and that we may need some very short-term spaces...like the UPS store downtown already has (meters are 15 or 30 minutes).

[finehoe]

^^Short time limits are notoriously hard to enforce (shorter than an hour and you basically have to have someone dedicated to that area, continuously driving around with a license plate reader device), and people find them almost as disagreeable as meters.

[vicupstate]

^^Short time limits are notoriously hard to enforce (shorter than an hour and you basically have to have someone dedicated to that area, continuously driving around with a license plate reader device), and people find them almost as disagreeable as meters.

The readers that check the two hour spaces complete a rotation in 15 minutes anyway, so it is not an issue.