The Town of Winchester, MA has a parking problem, and has had one since, well since the car was born. Read about it here.
They have studied the problem for 70 years and have "tried" many solutions, none of which have worked. Read the article carefully – the money quote, pointed out by Mark, was
Again, cooperation (e.g., employee parking) has been suggested as an element to solving problems. It remains to be seen if other measures to manage parking better may emerge and be successful in the near future.
Let me parse this for your newbies. The employees of the merchants that are concerned about downtown parking are taking all the spaces that their customer could use. There are plenty of spaces in nearby lots, but these lazy bums won't park there and walk a couple of blocks to work. Now, gee, can anyone out there see the solution coming?
First, fire any employee you see parking on the street. Then, charge for on street parking. Charge enough so that people will have choices. They can pay for convenient parking, or they can park for free in the off street lots and walk a couple of hundred feet to their destination.
Why the hell is this so mysterious? They want to study the problem (Winchester had done a study about every 10 years for the last half a century) but have come to the conclusion that "there is no solution."
Like most politicians, they don't want to take responsibility. They are afraid that they might lose a few votes from people who "know" more about parking than the experts. Or maybe they are part of the majority that says that parking is a "right." Or that they pay taxes so parking should be "free." Maybe they went to the civics class where they taught that there was an amendment in the constitution that has a basis in the Magna Carta that free parking is right up there with "Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Sigh
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