My blog a couple of days ago about enforcement and free parking in Newark OH brought a pushback from a local. Here’s Mark Rimmer’s comment:
He’s missing the point of the original article, which was that since there is no enforcement nobody honors the time limits. “Free” was never the issue, the issue was “abuse” of the time limited spaces by employees. The object of control of on-street spaces (whether thru price or time limits) is to create turnover, thereby allowing multiple customers to utilize the same spot throughout the day. If employees take all of the spots during all of the business hours in a day then the result is a perception that there is never any parking near the stores. The one unchangeable habit of drivers is that they will almost always drive to the “front door” and then start looking for a place to park. If they know they have a chance of getting a spot right in front or just down the street then if they occasionally have to park in a garage or lot a couple blocks away it’s not that big of a deal. But, if every time they come down they see they have no chance of a spot in the immediate vicinity of their destination then the perception of “no parking” is formed. If you don’t believe that just go sit in a Mall or Supermarket parking lot sometime and observe the driving patterns. There is a reason those businesses make their employees park in the outer reaches of the parking lots.
Well said…there’s more to this parking stuff than we think. But first you have to get the rates right and then enforce consistently
JVH
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