News Oct 21, 2010 at 4:00 am

Why Increasing Parking Rates to $4 an Hour Downtown Will Encourage People to Shop More and Help the City

Comments

2
Oh, god. Well, if Meinert says it, it must be true.
3
Four bucks an hour. I'm glad I don't have to park in dt Seattle! By the way, whatever happened to that espresso tax? Is that improving a lot of lives out there?
4
An excellent report. Kudos to McGinn for a step in the right direction. I’ve seen many people react with knee-jerk opposition because they think their parking costs will increase, when in fact it will decrease parking costs for most people, and attract more visitors, because short-term street parking will become easier to find.
5
An excellent report. Kudos to McGinn for a step in the right direction. I’ve seen many people react with knee-jerk opposition because they think their parking costs will increase, when in fact the change will decrease parking costs for most people, and attract more visitors, because short-term street parking will become easier to find.
7
As the report mentions, many street parking spots are taken up by long-term parkers who do little or nothing for business. Higher onstreet parking rates and stricter enforcement will shift them to offstreet parking where they belong, leaving more street parking spots available for those who go downtown for short trips.

The city should go further and implement Donald Shoup's recommendation of setting prices such that the onstreet spaces are 85% utilized on average. This actually attracts visitors because (1) they know that they will always find a space and (2) the money is invested in improvements to the neighborhood, making it a more attractive destination. This is how Old Pasadena was transformed from a ghetto into one of the most happening places to visit: it's one of the few places in southern CA where you can see throngs of people on the sidewalks. For more on the subject, see Shoup's presentation on the web titled 'The High Cost of Free Parking'.

Parking charges don’t eliminate visitors, as you can see from the fact that people do use paid parking lots.
9
Raising the prices will only encourage the private lots to raise their prices even higher. I’m sure this sounds great if you are a mayor who has the luxury of being able to commute to work on his bike then get chauffeured around by staffers in the cities Prius. Oh.. Cienna did you hear the news that there is a law that prevents autos from parking in the same spot for more than 2 hours...? Its efficiently enforced by the fascist meter maid patrol that roll around on Ben-Hur style Roman Gladiator chariots issuing tickets with zeal. Raising the prices will not free up more spaces. People will continue to park and get gouged. The proposed 4.8 to 6.1 million that you cite (source unknown) does sound great. I could see a years worth of accounting for this now...

15 new meter maids.....$1,000,000
New meter maid uniforms, and electric jet skis...$1,000,000
Police........$0
Fire...........$0
Crappy art for public park....$500,000
Endless meetings between the highly paid city intellectual ineffectual group that get nothing accomplished other than decide what private school is best for their children and where is the best place to do yoga is these days...$3,500,000
Organic Trader Joe Cheetos for meetings and cost to mock up a new arty bike rack that has a pacific northwest feel...$1,000,000

10
If "Downtown street parking is at 100 percent capacity for most of the day," then keeping the prices low serves NO rational purpose whatsoever.
11
oh yeah ! i would looooooooooooooooove to pay more to park downtown. not! just another shameless money grab, and its funding what exactly?
12
Hoooooooboy.

I left Seattle in 1997, and am glad I don't have to pay for parking now.

13
What I don't understand is why some people are afraid of TRYING ot at least. If it doesn't work, them we change the law. (Granted that might be a bit idyllic, to believe that a law once passed could be easily adjusted to meet the needs of a changing society, but we can try, right.)

I think the article makes a good point. Yes, a parking rate increase would suck, but in the long term, I suspect more people would actually save money. How often has it happened that you would spend fifteen minutes circling for a cheap metered spot, only to give up and pay the significantly higher parking garage fee? Instead of paying the "higher" four dollars, you are now paying ten. This has happened enough to me to think that a four-dollar meter could work if it does create more revolving spots.

In the end, taxes and tolls are not always your enemy.
15
At first I balked at the idea of $4 parking. But, I think it will help.

Scenario 1: you want to shop for 2 hours or lunch, etc; currently, almost all space are full so, if yo drive, you'll probably spend $15 or so in a private lot. With $4 parking, if you find a spot, you'll spend $8 otherwise your no worse off.

Scenario 2: you need to drop off something and then rush off to another place. With $4 parking, you have a chance of finding a space and pay $1 for 15 min. Otherwise $7 - and another $7 at the next place, and so on.
16
I see my girlfriend in downtown every Friay night to Saturday morning. Sleeping in till 10 or 11 would cost me $16! Maybe $20! That's two hour's work for me!!

Side note: I am not hogging up retail space. She doesn't live in a retail area, and there is usually 20% of spaces available.

I'm going to have to break up.
17
I see my girlfriend in downtown every Friay night to Saturday morning. Sleeping in till 10 or 11 would cost me $16! Maybe $20! That's two hour's work for me!!

Side note: I am not hogging up retail space. She doesn't live in a retail area, and there is usually 20% of spaces available.

I'm going to have to break up.
18
You have to be fucking kidding. Fuck you and your parking meters...why hasn't somebody gone around for kicks and taken care of them and all the other big brother shit? They continue to play us while fucking us.
19
All good points, however, no one really thinks or cares about the people who actually WORK downtown, and who don't have the luxury of an employer paying for their parking.
These lots charge us an arm and a leg to park so it's much cheaper for us "downtown workers" to "feed" the meters.
And don't try to force us to A] ride our bikes or B] take the bus.

This doesn't even touch on the issue of them wanting to make street parking restrictions and fees go until 8pm M-S [that's Sunday, not Saturday] How about the no parking on 1st ave till 8pm stretching from Seneca to Belltown plan? They don't seem to be talking about this with the public, yet.
21
come on now dave, who is one of the owners of big marios just accepts the tickets he can afford to pay them just pulls them off the windshield nice quote from him though
22
They've been talking about better enforcement on people who stay past two hours for a long time. Why don't we pursue that option rather than making Seattle unapproachable for the masses. Do business people really think that their average consumer in their local shop is going to pay $4 an hour for the soul purpose of going to their one shop? No, people go downtown and walk to a variety of places from their one affordable street parking spot.
23
They've been talking about better enforcement on people who stay past two hours for a long time. Why don't we pursue that option rather than making Seattle unapproachable for the masses. Do business people really think that their average consumer in their local shop is going to pay $4 an hour for the soul purpose of going to their one shop? No, people go downtown and walk to a variety of places from their one affordable street parking spot.
24
I am all for this. We can never find street parking when we go downtown, and end up spending far more at a pay lot. "Cheap" street parking is only cheap if you can actually find a spot.
25
Kudos to NONfinis.

This will certainly improve downtown.

Yes, it will make parking more expensive, but it will make customer turnover higher and increase business. For city dwellers it may convince more to bike or bus. For suburbanites they can either pay less to park at a lot that's far away (and then bus or bike). Or they can pay more.

Either way, the cost incurred by the car should be borne by s/he who benefits (the owner). Currently the price for having a car and parking it in downtown Seattle is too low. Well priced markets work more efficiently (and not in a mortgage default swap blah blah kind of way).

Economics tra-la-la-la
27
currently about once a week i will go to belltown/downtown for happy hour and/or shopping. If they charge $4 an hour for parking i will stop going to those areas and go to happy hour spots with parking lots. I'm guessing i'm not the only one that will be chased away by the higher parking rates. Why go shop downtown and pay $8 for two hours when you can go to southcenter and park for free? I only see this as a way for the city to make more money because they can't budget the money they already get from taxes. Buerocrats can't balance their budget so they dip into the public's pockets to cover the difference. This will hurt downtown businesses not help them.
28
@17 I see your GF on Thursdays. I ride my bike there so it doesn't cost me anything. Enjoy my moist.
29
I'm not so concerned about increases to parking rates in the downtown core area where there are at least decent public transit options. But I am concerned about the impact of the proposed increased rates and extended fee times in neighborhoods like Fremont and Ballard.

Without improvement to in-city public transit, it seems there would be a negative impact for these neighborhoods ... and an unfair disincentive to visit for those without the means to add $5 in parking to their farmer's market tab.

Seattle's public transit between neighborhoods is clunky and inconvenient to say little and an insult to public transit supporters to say more, and it should be taken into consideration with any changes to parking/driving incentives in neighborhoods.

Typically one can at least get downtown in a single shot. Trips between neighborhood require transfers ... often lengthy, often downtown. So, why not just get out and shop/dine there? Leave Ballard and Fremont as exclusive enclaves for trendy/wealthy patrons and their condo overlords.
30
Bus costs maybe $4 at most .... that's if you live in a non metro covered area ... I say we put parking downtown at $7 an hour for street side, and I don't even care what they do with the money now.
31
I work downtown and live fairly close to downtown, but not close enough to walk. Taking the bus if I want to shop is often not a good idea with a few bags in my hand. So, once in a while, I'll go downtown to shop and drive in. So, what would happen to my shopping trips if I have to pay $4.00+ bucks an hour? I'll go somewhere else. Basically, at $4.00 per hour, it makes it less expensive for me to go somewhere else, since a round trip to West Seattle, Northgate or even the east side would be less expensive, when including how much gas I'd have to spend. So yeah, good luck with that. Those on-street parking spaces, even if you have to drive a few blocks around to find them, are great for those of us who just want to go downtown, buy something within an hour or two and not have to pay the $7 - $8 bucks to park in one of the garages.

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