Plan to Prolong Paid Parking Periods Produces Protests

Austin may soon cut a policy that gives away a scarce resource to the lucky few: downtown street parking, which is free to those lucky enough to find a spot after 5:30 pm and on the weekends. In connection with the plan to install a new type of parking meter, free times may be cut, perhaps to after 8:30 pm and on Sundays. People park then too, but charging at night might incur the wrath of angry boozehounds and charging on Sundays might incur the wrath of God (or at least the wrath of downtown churches).

If meters were never free, some people would use pay lots and garages instead of street parking. This would open street spaces for short-term parkers and reduce the number of potential parkers roaming downtown looking for a free space (wasting gas, clogging traffic and endangering pedestrians), but the plan is not popular with everyone. News8 found a downtown shopper complaining that he "should be entitled to free parking" and a downtown worker complaining that "nine out of the 10 times I come here, I can't find parking."

When complaining complainers complain about the lack of parking in downtown Austin, the complaint is really the lack of FREE parking. There is also a lack of free pizza downtown, but people don't complain about that as much. If pizza was free, there wouldn't be enough and people would start to complain.

One solution would be to build more free parking, but no one wants to pay for it. The capitalist solution would be to charge market rates for all parking, which works - there is (almost) always a place to park if you are willing to pay. Soon there may not be any places to park downtown if you aren't willing to pay. Eliminating the expectation of free parking and making it easier to find an open (not free) spot may even reduce the number of complaints.

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By Shawn Shillington in News on November 17, 2008 10:29 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

cwewen

The Austinist gets it. Providing free parking is a public policy decision that has pros and cons. On the cons, it incentivizes driving over other forms of transport, such as mass transit, bicycling and walking. For the pros, people say it helps businesses nearby; however, this would only be true as long as it is available. Near bars and restaurants downtown, it often is not available. Ironically, charging for parking does make it easier to park for short periods of an hour or several hours, provided the rates are market priced. For business owners, I'd be glad to share data on how this can help business. If one supports the policy of extending hours of paid parking, one should let the city know. I, for one, wholeheartedly support this direction. - Chris

kenneth1

I'm with Stella. What, if anything, does the city plan to do with valet services that monopolize half the city's (supposedly) "public parking."

Metering until 8 p.m. might help somewhat, but as others have pointed out, downtown is pretty dead on most weeknights. Why discourage people from driving downtown?

mdahmus

The parking at night and on the weekends was free because there wasn't any feasible ability to enforce payment and any realistic desire to do so. Cars circling for a long time to find free parking spaces at night downtown wasn't as big of a deal as it would have been during business hours.

DrafthouseHenri

I really like this quote from the News 8 story:

"The purpose is to open up more parking by getting turnover," Spillar said. "Keeping people from parking all day and parking past the time when they should be moving on."

Getting turnover makes some sense, I suppose, but I don't understand why Spillar knows when it's time for parked people to be moving on? He's like the cranky coffeeshop monitor for all of downtown - "Hey buddy, you gotta buy another cup or you gotta go. You can't just hang out here all day."

I always figured the parking on the weekend was free because someone in the City understood that drunk people might want to leave their car behind and take a cab, then have someone give them a ride to their car the next day. Hmm... maybe this is all a diabolical plan by the Square Patrol?

myname

How about a centralized parking system that links the new pay stations with POS systems used by merchants? You put your money in and get two sheets of paper with barcodes. Put one on your dash and carry one. Merchants can validate time by scanning the barcode and adding money to the meter for you. Likewise if you're in a bar and need more time you can give money to the bar and add time without having to walk all the way back to the pay station. Meter readers can scan the barcodes on the dash for expired time.

This allows merchants to participate in funding for parking spaces without government involvement.

mdahmus

Thanks, Sal Costello! (Don't let the door hit you on your way out).

Tarvin

I've paid for those free parking spots with my taxes and fees. Having to pay is double taxation.

Stella

Are they taking into account that half the damn spots are now claimed by valets? Public parking spots. That chaps my hide, it does.

LoudMouth

"nine out of the 10 times I come here, I can't find parking."

That's rich. I wonder if she just drives home and doesn't work 9 out of 10 days when she's trying to park downtown and can't. On behalf of downtown communters who are too cheap to rent a parking spot downtown, I'd like to say, take the bus, bitch.

seth

Perhaps making downtown parking a bigger pain-point will inspire visitors to use mass transit or ride motorcycles / scooters. The city council currently is studying the feasibility of allocating priority parking for motorcycles & scooters downtown.

Seth

myname

I support extending paid meter parking when demand is highest. Friday and Saturday nights are the perfect example. However, we all know that downtown is pretty dead during the week. We also know that there are lots of options for retail, bar, and restaurants all around downtown that have free parking.

Why have another reason to discourage people from coming downtown during the week to eat or shop? The meters are plentiful then.