I noticed that no commercial operators were at the Smart Parking Conference last week in California. I wonder if any were invited. There were tons of government types from cities, but no one there who actually parks cars for a profit.
The Vice Mayor of the City of San Jose noted that the didn’t really have a parking problem downtown during the day, but they did in the evening, when all the commercial lots closed. She seemed confused that the commercial lots closed after 5 PM.
In her next breath she noted that the city had given the merchants down town what they wanted and provided free onstreet and off street parking in city garages in the evenings and on weekends.
She also commented that when she went to SJ state she knew every single free sparking space in the city and how and when to use them. She felt that maybe the city should start a program to teach others the techniques that college students use to park downtown.
One wag at the conference noted to me that the vice mayor of San Jose hadn’t learned anything about parking (or economics) for that matter since she was 18 years old. I had to concur.
However she had learned a lot about politics. She said that parking was the "third rail" of local politics. Maybe that’s what’s going on in San Francisco.
Do you think that if a commercial operator were present, he might have pointed out why they close the lots at sundown. Could it be that there was no money in charging for parking when the city was giving it away for free?
JVH
One Response
Actually there was one commercial operator at the Smart Parking conference – Spark Parking! We are a full-service parking data and operations services firm, utilizing advanced technology to deliver services of remarkably high quality, at remakably low price. Our services are of particular use to anyone seeking to implement the great ideas presented at the Smart Parking conference.