There is a system to this. On-street parking is geared to short-term parking needs. For people stopping in, staying for a short time. That is why you see no meters in the core that are more than two hours. Also, parking at a meter long-term will always be more expensive than parking in a ramp to provide an incentive to ensure that spot turns over to the next short-term parker who needs it instead of having a premium spot tied up all day. There are two basic kinds of ramps in the downtown: shopping/entertainment and commuter ramps. The shopping/entertainment ramps are in the very center of the core and function alot like parking meters. They are affordable for a couple of hours but get very expensive if you stay all day. An example is the Dayton's Ramp. Then there are commuter ramps, which are further out of the core and which are geared to people parking all day. Usually these have one rate for all day rather than an hourly rate. These are mostly for people who work downtown and commute by car. An example is the Gateway Ramp. Minneapolis has the largest municipally owned parking ramp system in the country. These commuter ramps have been citied consistently as one of the keys in having a thriving downtown. Regarding transit. Transit has two basic types of riders: those who are getting to work (which are about 75% of riders) and those people who do not have any other transportation option (about 25% of riders - who are mainly the poor, the disabled, and the elderly). As congestion becoming an increasing problem as the region grows and the number of highways don't, more and more people are turning to transit to get to work. Ridership is up 22% over the last four yers. In downtown Minneapolis, there are some companies where 60% of employees commute to work. Transit is a very good solution for employees getting to work in the downtown. They do not compete with parking meters though as that is a different type of trip usually. Carol Becker Longfellow ----- Original Message ----- From: John Rocker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 12:53 PM 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 > >
