A hospital in the UK had a huge parking problem — everyone was complaining, there weren’t enough spaces, patients were a tither, staff in revolt, people dying in ambulance that couldn’t get through the cars parked helter skelter on the streets ( well almost)…So what did they do? The begin charging for parking. Read all about it here.
What happened…Well — the problems all went away, except the staff complaining — but then they are in a union.
The patients love it. Streets are clear. But how could it be? Why did it happen?
The story is that the free parking at the hospital was being poached by workers in the near by town center who were being charged to $75 a month to buy parking permits in the local parking area. The hospital was free so the workers parked there and took spaces from the staff and patients.
Duh!!!
Now, the hospital charges a couple of bucks a day (less if you don’t park for the day) and the workers see no advantage to parking there and have moved on. The problem was fixed in one day.
See, charging for parking works.
An update: I was reading my favorite magazine today and found the article about the problems at this hospital reported a couple of months ago (here in the blog, too). We gave the solution then. Charge for parking. Guess what. They did. Parking Today and Your’s truly, on the cutting edge.
J
