PT's Parking Blog

Well Duh…..

The town of Harve de Grace, Maryland, has a problem. They thought they didn't have enough parking. So they hired a consultant and guess what. They have plenty of parking. Read all about it here. Before you read any further, take a moment, reflect on downtown parking, and see if you can deduce what the problem is. Tick tock Tick tock.

OK, I will let you know that you are right. Yep – people who worked downtown were taking all the short term on street spaces and customers had no place to park. There are already rules in place that say you can only stay a limited amount of time in on street spaces but they really weren't being enforced.

The consultant gently told the city that they understood that enforcement was a problem, but to fix their parking issue, enforce they must.

Parking enforcement is difficult at best – but when you are enforcing a time limit and it involves chalking either electronic or manual, it becomes more and more difficult. However if you charge for parking, and have a trusty meter there to tell the officer that a person is over time, things can become much more clear.

Plus the money could be used to pay for the enforcement and any leftover could go to that new sidewalk or street lights or whatever other project the locals may have in mind. If they are not enforcing now, my guess that adding fees plus enforcement is a nonstarter.

Can't someone write a letter to all cities in the US and have the heading say:

YOU PROBABLY HAVE MORE PARKING THAN YOU THINK. LOCAL WORKERS ARE TAKING THE SPACE THAT COULD BE USED FOR CUSTOMERS AND VISITORS. THERE ARE A BUNCH OF WAYS TO FIX IT, SEE THIS LETTER FOR A LIST.

My guess is few would read it and fewer still would believe it.

JVH

Roll the Dice, Park for Free

OK, the headline is misleading, but just a little. Here's a story about a woman who works near a casino. If she goes into the casino and plays $10 in the slots, she can park all day for free. The best regular parking deal she can get is $10 a day or $150 to $200 a month. So she decided to experiment. She's not a gambler but understand that mostly you lose.

So she goes in every day and gambles her $10 and gets her parking. Never more than $10. So far it seems to be working. She parked most of February and is only down $80. The garage is a five minute walk from her office. Even if she was down $140 she would be money ahead.

Now that's thinking.

JVH

A final word on the “ethics” of saving parking spots you have shoveled.

Slate magazine gets into it here, and in depth. Tom Vanderbilt quotes some professional ethicists and then agrees that saving a space you have just spent an hour clearing is immoral, or something. To that I say balderdash.

Everyone is supposed to love thy neighbor, save the whales, and sing kumbaya. I rather agree with Robert Ellickson who wrote Order Without Law, How Neighbors Settle Disputes. He comments that neighbors who live in an area for some time have a tendency to solve local problems (Tree on the roof, trash cans left out, barking dogs, and the like) without involving the law. They try to discuss the problem away and failing that, use an even bigger stick, gossip. (We had a barking dog next door. My friend and I knew the problem was that fido was lonely and needed long walks. He didn't like to be left outside. So we mentioned it to the neighbor then next time we saw him and volunteered to walk the dog daily, and get some of that energy out of him. Of course he didn't agree, but stepped up the walking, even involving his wife. Sure enough. Barking stopped. No cops, no animal control. Just a few judicious words in the right ear.)

It's important to remember that most of these "save the space" situations take place in certain neighborhoods where it has been going on for generations. The people there work it out. If someone takes your spot, watch out. Not a good idea. I wonder, really, if most of the people who are commenting on this problem live in neighborhoods where it actually exists. If you live in the burbs and have a garage or in an apartment on the upper west side and don't own a car or worse, in LA where it doesn't snow, why are you commenting on this anyway.

Leave the people in certain neighborhoods in Chicago and Boston and Philly alone. They have been saving spaces since cars were new. Why the hell not let them and keep our noses out of it. If it becomes a problem for them, my guess is that they will work out a way to solve it. This problem is not going to mean the end of civilization as we know it.

But what do I know…

JVH

Wow – Oscar

Went to the Oscars last night – was able to observe the parking and limo situation courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Valet Parking Service. It is an amazing production. I don't know how many people are involved, but certainly thousands. Security was tight. Everyone except the police was in Tuxedos. And it was cold.

Not cold like Chicago cold or New York cold, but cold like California cold – 50 degrees and the wind was blowing. Those female actors who were wearing their beautiful gowns weren't exactly warm, I'll tell you.

I was able to stand near the entry to the "red carpet" was watch what was happening. From time to time someone asked me to take their picture with their cell phone. I will tell you one thing. Out of the 6000 people who attended, I recognized maybe 7. And one was Donald Trump. I must be getting old. All these new kids coming up. I don't know any of them.

Sigh

JVH

Academy Awards parking

Follow my adventures on Twitter all Sunday PM. @jvhpt.
jvh@bricepac.com

Shoupistas in Space?

This is a great story about parking problems at the International Space Station. When space shuttle Discovery arrives, it will be faced with the following:

A European freighter is due to arrive Thursday, joining Japanese and Russian cargo ships and two Soyuz crew capsules.

It sounds like Babylon 5. Add a few Minbaris, Narn, and Centari and who knows?

I wonder if there is a charge for parking your space ship? And who gets the money. Wanna bet it goes into the general fund.

JVH

I Love this App

I'm not really to "into" apps, or applications, that can be downloaded onto your iPhone or Droid or Blackberry. There are supposed to be millions and they usually cost about a buck ninety nine.

However, here is one that should be on everyone's phone. It allows you to catch people who park in handicapped spaces without the proper documentation. You can snap a pix of their license, their front window (to show there is no permit) and of the offending car in the space. The app automatically correlates all this info and adds the GPS coordinates and sends it off to the local authority so they can mail a ticket to the sob.

It was developed by a pair in Vancouver, BC, one of whom is handicapped. The Vancouver government is taking it under advisement, but with all that photographic data, maybe they will yield. The only thing I would add is a small pad of notices that you can slap on the car saying something like, you have been caught and will be receiving a citation in the mail.

I hope it takes off like the one that allowed you to tell your friends where the enforcement officers were working so they could move their cars before he got to their street. This new Canuck app could really help in our ongoing campaign to 'get' those scofflaws who take disabled parking spaces

JVH

There Would be No Oscars, if the Parking Pros Fail

If you are a movie groupie like me, you will be watching the Academy Awards this Sunday evening. R tells me that the "pre" show is almost as important as the awards themselves. You get to see who is with whom, and who wears (or almost wears) what. Many stars and starlets wears designer clothes that cost tens of thousands, on loan from the couturier du jour. You will note that they usually mention when stopped by "E" or "Access" on the red carpet that the rag they just threw on was from so in so or whomever.

I have spent the last two days in meetings with the companies that are going to handle the limousine and valet service for the Oscars. There will be over 700 limos processed and a few more than that in cars that are handled by valet. Over 200 parking folks are involved in this event that actually lasts 10 hours. The limos line up and it can take up to an hour for one to snake through the line and reach the red carpet. I asked if those Hollywood types might get impatient waiting. Then the story in the first paragraph hit me. They are waiting for their 20 seconds on TV, and maybe a million hits on the 'net as they step out of that car. It's all staging. As they wait their turn, they know they will have a few seconds only for them. Could they move the limos through faster, sure. But then those starts whose names are above the title would either have to share the spotlight or have 10 seconds instead of 20.

The red carpet walk begins early, and by the time you see snippets on TV, most of the stars are inside with cocktails and tiny sandwiches waiting for the word to take their seats.

I asked the valet manager if any "big" stars actually drove their own cars. "Only the ones that are 'green.' They drive Priuses, and want their environmental creds shown world wide. No gas guzzlers here.

Security for the event is high. I had to have a police background check, and be photo badged so I could wander around and check out the parking. But I am restricted only to the area where the folks are dropped off. But probably not too close.

The parking is critical. One manager told me that if his shuttle operation failed, the Oscars simply wouldn't come off. There would be no press, no caterers, no camera people, no security, no musicians. They all park off site and have to be brought in. Some streets are closed, others have their directions changed. If you are coming, you have been gives maps that bring you in from certain directions, with the map starting 20 blocks from that fabled red carpet.

I will report back on Monday and let you know how it went. The issue, I'm told, isn't dropping people off or valeting cars, it's giving them back when it's all over. Oh, and there is a possibility of rain. The Prius drivers can blame that on climate change. It never used to rain in Southern California, at least according to Barry Manilow.

JVH

 

 

Do You Get Sold More Than You Need

I was visiting a parking operation here in LA this morning and was standing with the facility manager when two senior staff from a parking equipment dealer/installer walked up. We started talking about the new equipment they were in the finishing throes of bringing on line in the garage.

We talked about how they had to completely demo the parking islands and repour to meet the requirements of the manager to increase the turning radiuses and the like. This is the stuff of great interest to true parking groupies like moi.

The Salesperson for the installer then went into a long list of software features that had been included in the system. He was so proud of the capabilities of the software including prepayment of daily parking, future payment for parking (like for a theater), and other such wonders.

When they left I asked the manager if he would use even a portion of the software included. He smiled and said that there were contracts with bondholders that prevented the use of many of the features and most likely they will never be used.

I am the last person to ask about computer wizardry. However I am relatively sure that the more complex the software, the more chance of problems. Price aside, why would one want to purchase extremely complicated systems if you knew you would never use them. This goes to the theory that many software features in the system we own (windows and word included) have many features that are seldom if ever used, but that can wreak havoc if someone hits the wrong key.

It reminds me of the company that told its customers that if it wanted to make a rate change in its system, the factory had to do it. The reason was that rates are extremely complicated and a slight error could make a critical difference in income. Of course, the customer is always right, and the supplier folded and set up the system so that they could change the rates.

When there was a change, the manager went in and did what he was supposed to do, with one exception. He didn't know the difference between "turn around" and "continuous" grace periods. (Turn around grace comes off the front end of the rate, giving a driver time to turn around. After that there is no grace. "Continuous" grace is always in effect and removes the time from the "end" of the time. It basically lowers all tickets except fully daily rate tickets by one increment.)

Our hero didn't know the difference and guessed. When the error was caught two months later the owners had lost over $40,000 in revenue.

That ability to change rates was unnecessary, but the other guys did it so this supplier was required to do it too. A costly bit of software that was included at no charge.

If you don't need it, aren't going to use it, why buy it? The answer usually is that you may need it in the future. Then fine, get an upgrade then. You probably will get a lot of bugs fixed you didn't even know about when they do the upgrade. In the meantime, your system will run more solid, and be more simple to use. Just sayin…

JVH

Stewards of Parking

Brandy Stanley from the city of Manchester, NH, has agreed to help keep me on an even keel as I periodically write about how we may be able to change the perception of our profession. Here we go.

First what is our goal as stewards of parking?

I'm not sure what it is and I will leave that to Brandy – she can respond as soon as she reads this. I know what I think the goal should be.

A municipality, a university, an airport, a hospital, a business complex all have a limited number of parking spaces at their disposal. In each case, our goal should be to maintain and allocate those spaces, as appropriate, to the workers (students) and visitors. The question is, of course, how we do that. In hospital, business, and airport settings, it's fairly straight forward. We control access and people decide if they want to pay a fee to park. The fee enables us to maintain our parking resource and in some cases, limit who can park. The fees can be arbitrary and often provide substantial income to the entity (Airports, particularly).

Municipalities have a different type of problem. Historically parking has been inexpensive or free, the idea being that "free" parking. Folks got used to it and as we began to charge, and raise the rates, and place restrictions on where and when they can park, enforcement began to take on importance. How do we be sure people follow the rules?

Our goal is to alter behavior. From Free to Paid. From parking all day to parking an hour. From parking in handicapped spots to not parking….. You get the idea. There appears to be two ways to alter behavior – a carrot or a stick. We have been using a stick – If you break the rule and get caught, we will give you a citation and fine you.

There is a problem – we only write about 10% of the citations that could be written. There just aren't enough officers or enough hours to cover all the possible violators. So most people are trained to believe that the chances of them being caught are slim, and after all, there is no theft involved, no murder, or mayhem. No one is really hurt if they don't feed the meter or if they park in a reserved spot. There is no moral code broken, no commandment, when you overstay your parking.

Some parking managers will say that increased enforcement will cause people to change their habits. After all, who wants to be hit with a $80 or $100 ticket. Better follow the rule than take a chance. They will stay that with increased enforcement the incidence of violations do go down. But is that our long term goal? We want them to follow the rules, but really deep down, don't we want to collect the revenue off the citations.

Every day there are headlines that cities can't meet their budgets and that more money is needed from citations to do so. This money is going to the general fund. Often so much is taken that the parking department itself is left budget shy. A customer reads the paper and begins to look over his shoulder. Are they coming after me?

We enforce our rules with citations and fines. We attempt to get people to change their behavior. But we send mixed messages. On one hand we say we are being stewards of parking space, but on the other we are collecting money for the general fund. What is it?

What do you think, Brandy – did I overstate my case? When Brandy and I come to an agreement on the problem, we'll try for some solutions.

JVH