Readers Prefer Individual Parking Meters
It’s been a very long time since a poll got as few votes as last week’s, which makes it hard to draw any conclusions. Anyway, here’s the data:
Q: Please pick the answer that represents your preferred order for on-street paid parking:
- 1) Individual meters 2) Pay-per-space stations 3) Pay-and-display stations 17 [33.33%]
- 1) Pay-and-display stations 2) Pay-per-space stations 3) Individual meters 10 [19.61%]
- 1) Pay-and-display stations 2) Individual meters 3) Pay-per-space stations 6 [11.76%]
- 1) Pay-per-space stations 2) Pay-and-display stations 3) Individual meters 6 [11.76%]
- 1) Pay-per-space stations 2) Individual meters 3) Pay-and-display stations 6 [11.76%]
- 1) Individual meters 2) Pay-and-display stations 3) Pay-per-space stations 5 [9.8%]
- Unsure/no answer 1 [1.96%]
In terns of first choice answers the numbers look like:
- Individual meters: 22
- Pay-and-display: 16
- Pay-per-space: 12
All very close, but again the numbers are low.
I’ve long been a fan of pay-and-display because they eliminate the need to pre-define each space, potentially getting another car to fit on the block, but walking back to the car is more challenging for me now. Remembering a 5-digit space number to use a pay-per-space station is also difficult for me now, I’d need to save the number on my phone, or take a photo of the space number.
Currently the Treasurer’s Office isn’t testing a pay-and-display system because no companies with such systems responded the RFP last fall. The two types of individual meters are being tested in the CWE, two types of pay-per-space stations are being tested downtown.
— Steve Patterson
While pay and display “potentially get[s] another car to fit on the block”, it also potentially gets FEWER vehicles on a block if people leave more space between them and the vehicle(s) in front of and/or in back of them when they park. Parallel parking is quickly becoming a lost art while big-ass pickups are becoming more common for personal use. And this applies to regular parking lots, as well, where more than a few vehicles end up parking outside the lines. And when it comes to parking “incorrectly” (first photo), that’s basically an enforcement issue – the first time you get ticketed for doing it, you learn what’s correct and what’s not!
As for the low response rate, could it be that it’s simply a non-issue for most people? Most of us prefer free parking, but if we need to pay, we just do it, and don’t think too much about alternatives. The two bigger issues I see are a lack of enforcement and the idea that charging to park actually encourages turnover and increases business. Paying to park is a (minor?) PITA, and it mostly affects shoppers and daytime workers. Shoppers have multiple suburban options, while for workers it’s just a cost of doing business. What it doesn’t affect (or help), much, is many evening, entertainment activities, the very things that define urban living, along Grand, Washington, in Soulard and in the CWE.
Given the length of our current parking spaces I can’t see a way we could possibly get fewer cars parking on a block with pay-and-display.
The car in the first photo took up two spots – no reason to believe that they wouldn’t take up two spots (if they were available) with pay-and-display – at least with defined spots, there’s something to aim for and to enforce, with “create your own space”, there will always be asshats and douchebags . . . https://www.facebook.com/AsshatParking
soulard has almost no meters. and most meters in the city stop at 7, so dont worry about it. some people want the city to be more than just an evening playground for suburbanites.