Is parking too cheap?

Oh

Having to pay 20 bux to park is going to make me not come into the city and spend my 100 bux on a weekend night.

Enjoy Tewksbury's nightlife!
 
Re: Oh

JimboJones said:
Having to pay 20 bux to park is going to make me not come into the city and spend my 100 bux on a weekend night.

Enjoy Tewksbury's nightlife!
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It doesn't hurt me as much as it does the businesses in the city. Implementation of such a program would no doubt have an adverse affect on Boston's already weak nightlife.
 
Re: Oh

bosdevelopment said:
It doesn't hurt me as much as it does the businesses in the city. Implementation of such a program would no doubt have an adverse affect on Boston's already weak nightlife.
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Charge less at night? Or make it free?

Isn't it free at night now?





Btw, you're right about Boston's night life problem: mostly lame. Or is that tame?
 
Here is another article featuring the same professor, but highlights an alternative approach. Instead of concentrating solely on market rates, it may be just as important to change or eliminate parking requirements for construction. I know that Boston allows a development to count on-street parking for its own development to an extent, which is a bit more progressive. Nevertheless, the argument that could be made that Boston should get rid of them entirely has much merit, IMO.
 
Boston needs more rooftop parking. Think of all the land wasted in larger developments because the roof is home to an a/c unit and dust.

Check out this example in Allston, by Harvard Ave. Some parking done right, some wasted space.

parking.jpg
 
Parking or parks, either way we are completely wasting perfectly good real estate by not doing something with roofs.
 
A democratic concept: The city streets and parking spaces are actually the property of the citizens of the city not he city government.

Forcing people to drive around looking for parking is not an environmentally friendly practice.

People staying out of the city, which they do, because it is expensive to park, and traffic is a hassle with all those cars circling the block looking for parking, costs city businesses big money.

The T is very expensive. As an example, it costs a family of five $20 to travel from Newton to downtown and back on a packed, slow Greenline train. Almost as much as parking in town, but it takes 3 to 4 times longer and is a cramped, unpleasant trip.

Best alternatives IMO;

Build more easily accessible underground parking in the city

Build more cheap parking at T stops in the burbs

Have some sort of family pass for mass transit

Charge less to park a car with more people in it
 
jass said:
Boston needs more rooftop parking. Think of all the land wasted in larger developments because the roof is home to an a/c unit and dust.

Check out this example in Allston, by Harvard Ave. Some parking done right, some wasted space.

parking.jpg
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You've got it wrong my friend. Those 'roof top parking lots' belong to Herb Chambers for his Honda-Infiniti-Mini-Porsche-etc. dealership located on Comm. Ave.

Come to think of it, the TJ Maxx on Harvard St. (the lowest red square towards the bottom of the pic) ought to have rooftop parking so they can develop the large surface lot. Talk about a waste of space.
 
tocoto said:
Build more easily accessible underground parking in the city
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This would only encourage more people to drive into the city which would only make traffic worse.

Build more cheap parking at T stops in the burbs
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I think the T and state are planning on doing this, though 1,000 new spaces doesn't seem like enough.

Have some sort of family pass for mass transit
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That is a great idea.

Charge less to park a car with more people in it
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Good idea, but like car pooling, hard to enforce and get people to do.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
tocoto said:
Build more easily accessible underground parking in the city
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This would only encourage more people to drive into the city which would only make traffic worse.

I have heard this argument forever, but I think it is wrong. It's well known that people can perform studies and bend the numbers to show whatever they want.

I'm no traffic or parking planner but a personal observation is unequivocal for me. Every place I go in or around downtown I see that every spot on the street is taken immediately after it is vacated. Clearly a lot of people are driving around looking for parking. How many cars pass the vacant space before it is re-occupied? 1, 5, 10? My estimate is less than 5, but to be conservative let's assume it's 10. That means that 10% of the traffic on the street at any time is circling, looking for parking. I believe the percentage is much higher, maybe even 50% at times. Imagine the wasted time, pollution and traffic that represents. IMO a better parking and traffic policy would do away with the old assumption that more parking means more traffic and balance parking capacity with ease of parking, cost , road capacity, pollution minimization, etc.
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Or they could just completely make up numbers like you did. Just because you don't see it happen doesn't mean it doesn't happen (and it's not like anyone could just see it happen in an entire city).
 
My point is not that the government doesn't collect data, just that the conclusions drawn are not necessarily correct since traffic and parking constitute a very complex relationship involving a multitude of variables and many of the people doing the studies have a bias one way or the other.
 
A Technical Solution

All Transportation in Massachusetts should adopt a standardized Charlie-like Card

The Card would work wirelessly at a limited range for parking at meters, at garages and lots

At a meter, if a space was vacant the meter would zero, it would also time-out after 1 to 2 hours -- no feeding

The card will also work with a longer range transponder for at-speed toling on highways without toll booths.

The card is anonymous -- so there is no tracking and reloadable at any ATM and with not much additional capabilities it could be reloadable from your own PC or even PDA / Iphone, etc.

In one fell swoop there is no need for all of the coins and cash handling in the transportation infrastructure, no need for people in toll booths, no traffic jams in garages and cost per transaction would be minimal.

Westy
 
^ Eventually you will have one card for all purchases, not just transportation-related ones.

And losing that card will be an extraordinary bitch.
 
Not a danger: it will be implanted under your skin.

justin
 
All-purpose Card

Losing the Card -- just means going to a CVS or an ATM that vends them and buying a new one

They will probably cost about $3

Since the money stored in the Card is only accessible with your personal biometric -- probably your thumbprint on the card except for the high volume low $ transactions such as a T-ride. You don't even have to worry too much about the lost money on the Card.

But these are details to be worked-out when such as system is established.

Westy
 
Parking Plan Would Change Prices on Upper West Side

By Special to the Sun

January 28, 2008

Two-hour coin operated parking meters could disappear from parts of the Upper West Side as early as this summer, with drivers instead paying varied parking prices that would change based on supply and demand.

The city Department of Transportation is evaluating a plan submitted by the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District that proponents say would increase the turnover of parked cars, improve access to businesses, and decrease congestion created by drivers circling the neighborhood for a coveted spot.

If the proposal is implemented, many traditional meters will be replaced with multi-space meters at the center of the block equipped with technology that would regulate prices based on the number of vacant spots.

"We feel parking spaces are given away too cheaply," the executive director of the BID, Barbara Adler, said. "The goal is to keep one parking space available on each side of the street at all times."

Flexible parking pricing, also known as "performance parking," already has been introduced in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and London, where revenues are used to clean sidewalks and improve bus stops, benches, and newsstands.

Parking capacity on the Upper West Side could be monitored through detection devices, or tracked by meter activity, and prices would be adjusted accordingly by increments of 25 cents, Ms. Adler said.

At the behest of the BID and the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, the transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, met last month with the foremost expert on performance parking, Donald Shoup.

The University of California, Los Angeles professor and the author of "The High Cost of Free Parking" spent an hour with Ms. Sadik-Khan discussing the BID's proposed pilot program.

"The best sidewalks in New York are at Rockefeller Center, because Rockefeller Center pays for them," Mr. Shoup said. "Performance parking would bring all streets to that level."

The department also is evaluating a proposal by the BID for a buffered, express bus lane down Columbus Avenue.


Copyright 2008 The New York Sun
 
A Technical Solution

justin said:
Not a danger: it will be implanted under your skin.
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And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead,

and he provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
 
Would they change in real time? You put in a quarter expecting 10 minutes and it changes up half way through and only gives you 7? Or when you reload another quarter it only gives you 7? Could cause some angry customers.
 
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