Turning over spots

Hillary had this in a recent post ...

City Dope (now headed up by Dave Marr) chats with Kathryn Lookofsky re: parking meters, and she leaves the door open for increased per-hour rates, pointing out that turnover needs to be maintained downtown. Pardon, but isn't there already a two-hour limit on most metered spaces? Shouldn't that create turnover? Oh, it's cheaper to get a ticket than to park most other places? Still? Maybe ticket prices for expired meters should continue to climb, thus actually increasing turnover and encouraging deck parking (I know!).

I'm all for turning over parking spaces in a more efficient and more timely manner, but I'm going to have a hard time supporting higher fees for on-street parking than for deck parking. I'm not entirely sure charging a higher amount per hour will push folks into the parking decks (in fact, I think it's more likely to send them away from downtown).

However, one change the Athens-Clarke County Commission has made in the past year that has been particularly helpful in addressing this - and I speak out of personal experience - is charging higher penalties for overdue meters. It took three parking tickets in two weeks for me to realize that it was simply more economical to park in the downtown decks (and it was compounded by the creeping fear that with each new, unpaid ticket I was inching closer and closer to a dreaded boot on my Accord). Given that I'm apparently in the process of setting up a remote office from the booths at Walker's Coffee & Pub, my need to be downtown for four hours or so is much better served by parking in the College Street parking deck.

If the rates need to be raised to, say, $.75 to help offset the construction of the Clayton Street parking deck, that's fine. But I'd push for boosting the parking ticket fines to $15 in an attempt to really put the pinch on folks. That's a method that will not punish folks who want to just use a spot for 30 minutes, but will effectively put a pinch on those who misuse the on-street parking options.