Comments on: Up parking meter fees, reduce congestion

By: Siel

Siel — Wed, 09 May 2007 04:01:59 +0000

When I lived in the miracle mile area, it seriously got to the point where I would not go out sometimes because I didn’t want to lose my parking spot –

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 05 May 2007 11:15:12 +0000

I live near the Grove, in one of the few streets that are free of evening parking restrictions. thus, Grove employees will park on out street, walk a mile to the grove, rather than pay out of their pocket to use an otherwise empty space in the Grove parking structure. of course people also park on our street to go to shows at Largo, late night dining at Canters, and much more. so we residents must spend upwards of 20 minutes every night to find parking, EVEN AT A METER that starts at 8am. needless to say I am working toward getting a permit parking district established. after two years of bureacracy and no action, I am finding that I leave my car in my prime parking spots and use my bike as much as possible.

By: Robert 'Groby' Blum

Robert 'Groby' Blum — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 13:58:35 +0000

I was replying to Sarah’s point in here, but it turned so long that I instead posted it on my blog: http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2007/04/04/public-transportation-in-la-is-broken

By: Rafi

Rafi — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:59:00 +0000

Thanks Siel. You made my point very well. People don’t try public transit because it’s more expensive and less convenient than driving, thanks to our heavy spending on highways and fuel subsidies (and, apparently, parking meters). Once our governments stop hiding the costs of driving, people will see that we need an alternative.

By: Siel

Siel — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 03:14:06 +0000

Okay — I definitely think people park at meters for cost reasons. I s’pose it depends on where you live / hang out, but take, for example, parking around the El Rey, which I used to live next to. There were plenty of close-by parking lots, but people would circle around and around a 6-block radius to find free parking (cuz meters no longer run after like 7) and walk like a mile total to and from the venue.

I’m guessing Rafi means that we’ll have better or more public transit if more people demand it. We don’t LACK public transport, but as a frequent bus rider, I have to say it does create some real headaches at the moment –

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 01:19:46 +0000

LA has public transportation, and I take it regularly. I don’t think its a LACK of public transportation that is causing the problem, its the lack of people actually TRYING public transportation rather than driving their gas guzzlers. How many people have you met that have actually tried public transportation and have not been successful? I think the majority is more with people writing it off before even trying it based on some stigma attached.

By: Rafi

Rafi — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:33:14 +0000

My point being, that we will have public transit if people demand it.

By: Rafi

Rafi — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:32:50 +0000

This approach might be a bit of a kluge, but any way to reduce the huge subsidies car drivers is fine by me.

I can’t wait for the $4/gal Bay Area gas prices to hit Southland!!!!!!

By: Robert 'Groby' Blum

Robert 'Groby' Blum — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:04:36 +0000

Except people don’t park at most meters for cost reasons – they park there because the garage (or lot) parking is too far away.

You could of course also make the point that garage parking is overpriced, not the meter parking underpriced. Santa Monica seems to do well with their free parking outside of core hours….

Increasing meter prices is not helping, it’s fighting symptoms. As long as a car is required to get things done (and it is, right now), people will use it. Make public transportation a real option, and a lot of things will sort themselves out. (You could still use parking prices as a policy option – but isolated use is nothing more than a band-aid)