And hopefully the test will turn out better than politics in this city with the best weather in the country. San Diego is running a test of new parking meters in areas that don’t have them and lowering or changing rates to get better meter utilization. Read about it here.
I don’t know a thing about this and the story doesn’t help a lot, however it hints that some of the rates were lowered, and new meters installed where none were before. The problem was, it says, that areas nearby metered parking that had no meters were swamped and those with meters needed more action. The solution was to add meters in the areas that didn’t have them.
That seems to work. I am a bit concerned when they talk about lowering the parking fees. That is probably a bone to local merchants. They say that no one knows how much money will be raised but they do know that some will be coming in. Anyone out there want to guess where it will be going?
Right into the general fund is my best guess. What they need to do is double the parking rates, take the money and invest in improvements in the areas where the money came from.
JVH
