The official position that people park too long at meters (undesirable)
and that they should be driven into ramps by (1) raising meter rates and
(2) removing meters is self-defeating. Yes, you will have fewer people
driving into the downtown area, but they also won't be doing business there
if they can help it.
I expect that the plan for the new library removes the lot with meters
and replaces it with a ramp that matches the rates of other ramps.
I often drive into downtown on errands that take 15-20 minutes including
walking from and to the meter. It has become much harder now that there
are fewer meters (in total) and many that have hoods because of
onstruction. I won't pay the ramp rates for the first hour to honor a
downtown business with my dollars when they are 10-15 times what I need
to put in a meter.
I can't remember the details of the study that the city commissioned to
"prove" that closing most or all of 5th Street for lrt and part of 4th
Street to handle the buses that will be moved from 5th, as well as
changes related to "The Avenue of The Arts". I think that the study
suggested removing even more meters. There are places where there isn't
enough capacity on the sidewalks for the people who are there now, much
less than in 20 years. Of course, the study showed how realistic it was
by predicting that 5th Street with lrt and one lane for traffic would carry
40% to 60% of today's vehicles during rush hour in twenty years.
The fancy new meters can handle card in addition to coins. I thought that
would be great, no running out of quarters (another sore point: meters that
don't take dimes and nickels). But the only time that I checked, it cost
$10 to get set up on the plan and there weren't many places that you could
get them, maybe only one. Needless to say, with it costing 40 quarters
to help out the city and it being inconvenient to boot, I keep a little
bag of quarters in the car. I always have them and they are a good backup
if I need to pick up a paper out of a street box. The paper boxes seem
to be able to handle other coins, as well.
At least the city hasn't installed the meter upgrade that is available.
It is a device that is able to tell when your car leaves the space. It
then clears the remaining time on the meter, so that nobody else can
park on what's left of your time.
The other thing that I kind of expect is that meters will be equipped
with cell phones or radios that can signal a meter monitor when your
time runs out, so that they don't miss any fines. It's so inefficient
for them to just drive around looking for expired meters...
The lrt, if it survives the current court cases, will let you get into
downtown to walk, if you drive to the GSA building or the Megamall, pay
$1.50, and spend 1/2 hour getting downtown. That's obviously so much
better than driving into town and parking at a meter.
Bruce Gaarder
Highland Park Saint Paul
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
