What would dramatically improve livability downtown is for people to get out
of their cars and walk, bike or use transit! A person out of their cars is
what will provide life on the streets.
More people would be inclined to do this if parking was more expensive and
if there were more and better transit options. Raising parking meter rates
would help visitors on short trips because it would be more expensive to
park all day on the street thus more meter turnover. If we added more
meters on the street the result would be more traffic, especially during
rush hour and there would be less room in the right of way, than there
already is, for bikes and busses.
As to downtown livability, clearly we would experience better air quality
with less cars stuck in traffic.
Lisa Goodman
Downtown Resident
-----Original Message-----
From: John Rocker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 2:53 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: parking meters
What struck me about the Strib article was Lisa Goodman's
comment that
increasing rates could encourage more people to use ramps
and thereby
alleviate the congested downtown streets. To me, that flies
in the face of
creating a more livable downtown.
In my uninformed opinion, raising the rates is fine, but we
should be
dramatically increasing the number of on-street parking
spaces in the core
of downtown to make quick stops easier, provide some life on
the streets and
buffer the pedestrians from traffic.
If congestion is a problem during rush hour, limit the
parking to non rush
hours and heavily ticket the cars that haven't been moved.
(This works well
in Washington DC.) During non rush hours, all I see are wide
open streets
and No Parking signs.
John Rocker
JCR Realty Advisors/
National Survey Systems
3211 Fremont Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55408
