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A town nearby where my parents live recently experimented with zoning some of their parking lots for development and expanding street parking in the (small) dow
by sethhochberg 8y ago
A town nearby where my parents live recently experimented with zoning some of their parking lots for development and expanding street parking in the (small) downtown core, an area full of small shops and restaurants, mostly. The street parking had meters, which were very cheap (I think the maximum you could spend was something like $3 a day). The local residents revolted, business owners claimed their income was taking a hit, etc. At the time, I wondered how in the world this seemingly thriving, walkable little downtown was so dependent on giant free parking lots behind the main strip... it seemed crazy to me that someone would stop going to a restaurant they enjoyed because their $50 bill for dinner turned into a $51.50 night out with parking fees.
I'm not saying you're wrong to dislike street parking, its just such a foreign concept to me that someone would avoid an entire otherwise-nice area because there is plentiful parking that doesn't suit their tastes. Kind of weird to see it written out like that.
- jimmaswell 8y agoIt's not just the meter fee, but getting into the space (if a space is between two cars I'll just go farther to find an easier space), having to watch for a safe moment to get out of the car, getting out of the space (especially if traffic is busy or people came up too close in front of or behind me), and the meters themselves can be a source of annoyance here because they take their time authorizing the credit card charge. With all that, I find it more convenient to mostly just go to the grocery store which has a parking lot, and order in. As a side note, I also hate street parking as just a driver passing through because it so often makes the street suffocatingly narrow and I have to watch out for people coming and going.
- pxeboot 8y agoSame concept with free shipping. People really like it, even if the total cost is higher.
- jimmaswell 8y agoAre meter fees the primary complaint about street parking? They don't really factor into it for me.
- sethhochberg 8y agohttps://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/Dunedin-shuts-down-paid-parking-discussion_171353318 https://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/Dunedin-shuts-... This is an article from the town in my example above - comments from business owners make it seem like, yes, the primary issue really was that people don't want to pay anything at all to park. (A couple of years after the controversial paid street parking experiment started, a new mixed-use development with a public parking garage on the ground level opened up. The garage is still free to park in to this day. Somebody paid a lot of money for those garage spaces, and is seemingly very afraid of charging anything to use them)
- llampx 8y agoMeter fees are annoying not because of the nominal value of the coins you put in them, but because of the fines you can accumulate if you forget to feed it the quarters and dimes it needs. Parking enforcement is typically very strict in most cities and downtowns, and its common to hear someone complain about receiving a fine because they lost track of time while shopping or something. I would say it has a chilling effect on businesses that thrive on browsing type of behaviour.
- lg 8y agoin addition to what other replies said, i don't mind the electronic meters often found in parking lots that take credit cards. i can't use the typical coin-op street meter because I don't have coins and haven't regularly carried them in over a decade.