Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Long Overdue Parking Changes Mentioned At Council

Plan reduces time to pay parking ticket
City clerk also floats higher rates, fines, deterring all-day users
Link

"City Clerk Sandy Kennedy told the Fort Wayne City Council on Tuesday she plans to introduce a proposal to reduce the amount of time people have to pay parking tickets before they double."

"Councilman Sam Talarico, R-at-large, expressed concern about the number of people who work downtown who choose to park in metered spots. He said this could especially become a problem if the $120 million Harrison Square project is successful and creates an even higher demand for on-street parking. He said the street parking is designed to provide quick access to shops and businesses.

“I don’t think people should be using those as all-day parking spots,” he said.

Talarico said a way to curb misuse of the spots would be to double the city’s fines to $10, saying the current tickets don’t serve as much of a deterrent because they are cheaper than many parking lots."

"A report done for the city by Carl Walker Inc., of Kalamazoo, Mich., recommended implementing a tiered fee structure. In it, first-time offenders would receive a warning citation, but people who consistently park illegally could be fined $50 or $75. The study also found the cheapest off-street parking downtown was 50 cents per hour, double the metered rates."

8 comments:

Dave MacDonald said...

A report done for the city by Carl Walker Inc., of Kalamazoo, Mich., recommended implementing a tiered fee structure.

Do we really need to go outside Fort Wayne for information like this? How much was this firm for said report? I find it hard to believe that some local college student couldn't compile this data.

Fort Wayne needs to start outsourcing its own consultants so other city's moneys can come here instead. Think of the money we could make!

Dan Carmody said...

Dave

Carl Walker is the best parking consultant working in the country these days. There are many cities trying new things and Carl Walker is in the middle of many of them.

We don't need information we need wisdom and Carl Walker can provide that because they specialize on one thing - parking.

Now implementing the many changes contained in the study - suggested by a careful study of our circumstance and by best practice in other places needs to occur or the money invested in wisdom will have been wasted.

The work completed by Carl Walker is far beyond what some local college student could compile.

To be sure Fort Wayne needs to improve its use of consultants and do a better job of building local capacity to do the various studies that need to be completed along the way - but let's not be so provincial that we don't look for solutions in other cities facing similar problems.

Dan Carmody

Dave MacDonald said...

Dan,

Can we view this report somewhere (have you received a copy)? Thanks in advance.

Dave

Jeff Pruitt said...

Of course to date I don't believe the city has acted on any of the recommendations contained in this report.

Dave,
I would contact the mayor's office and ask for a copy. You paid for it and they have to provide you with one...

Dave MacDonald said...

Thanks Jeff.

Dave

Dan Carmody said...

Dave

I did get a copy but lent it to a member of the local media and have not got it back yet.

I will try to get it back and I'll give you an email once I have it in hand.

Dan

John B. Kalb said...

Dave - I have a copy you can borrow - I got mine from Redevelopment Dept. Just e-mail me and tell me how we can get together. It's a multipage document. John B. Kalb john.kalb@verizon.net

logicalthinker said...

I find it hard to stomach paying more to park downtown. When in fact you want people to come downtown. BUT as was brought up. The meters are not for long term. ON another subject doesn't companies downtown like Lincoln have a ton of out of town employees who have accrued alot of parking violations which the city hasn't collected????