> I doubt that the City of Minneapolis has the legal
> authority to impose
> a fee to drive in downtown. However, since the city
> owns most of the
> parking spaces and most of the cars driving to
> downtown park there, the
> city could probably accomplish the same thing by
> increasing parking
> fees. Charge more to park at times when traffic is
> congested.
When I lived in St. Paul and worked in downtown
minneapolis, the time it would take to bus to DT st
paul and transfer to bus to DT mpls wasn't worth the
cost savings. Parking really isn't all that
expensive. Most ramps you pay a reduced rate if you
arrive before 8am or 9am and most of them are under
$8. Rapid park, site of the future home of the twins
charges $4 if I remember right, if you are in by 8am
and out by 4pm, it is $5 or $5.50 if you leave after
4pm. When I moved to camden, I never took the bus
because there wasn't an express route I could get so
the bus trip DT was twice as long as driving. Made it
hard to leave my car behind especially since there was
no traffic for me to get stuck in.
Related to the post I am responding to, does mpls
really own all that many of the parking spaces? I
don't think they run the new ramps in block E, 5th and
marquette or in the law center on 5th and hennepin. I
think these are private ramps that would love to see
the city raise prices. I think the cost of parking
would have a direct effect on the number of people who
drive downtown but they all would have to work
together or the city would have to control a
significant percentage of the spaces for it to work.
John Harris
webber-camden
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