Generating goodwill at the parking meter

Winnipeg Free Press

6 days ago

Opinion
Recent reports from the City of Winnipeg about plans to remove all the downtown parking meters left our household upset.
We're among the 20 per cent who use the meters. We dig out change or use a credit card. On nice days, we can walk downtown, but when transporting kids or in bad weather, we rely on the meters. Based on anecdotal evidence, the meters sometimes failed.
Apparently, so did the phone app that replaces it. The city's efforts to boost downtown visitor numbers should target that 20 per cent — the occasional visitors who haven't downloaded an app but rely on meters instead. This news story made me remember a better parking experience.
BROOK JONES/FREE PRESS
There are better ways for the City of Winnipeg to handle getting rid of its parking pay stations, which will be removed between July 2 and Aug. 31. A pay station is pictured along Broadway Avenue on May 21.
Our family was on summer vacation in Western New York. We took a highway exit to Jamestown. Parking on a hilltop, in the middle of downtown, we put our coins in the old-fashioned crank parking meter and walked, admiring the landscape, to a nice restaurant for lunch. The food was good. When we decided to have dessert, my husband sorted out more change for the meter. We had extra time to stroll downtown, see lake views, window shop and see a comedy centre, inspired by Lucille Ball, who was from Jamestown. We remembered this positive break from the road fondly.
In comparison, we encountered numerous 'E-Z-Pass' incidents which left us frazzled. Many highways require tolls but no longer have a payment system without a physical device in the car. We tried to get around Chicago while I scrambled to figure out how to pay for our tolls online.
I still don't know if we covered those tolls, though we honestly tried.
If Winnipeg wants people to feel comfortable coming downtown, the city should provide alternatives to a reliance on a phone app.
Ernie Nuytten suggests in a letter to the editor on May 24 that these parking booklets should be available wherever Winnipeg Transit tickets are sold. Ursula Delfing writes that parking near the downtown 'Parking Store' be free, to avoid getting tickets while trying to obtain a parking booklet. Like our troubles taking toll roads on vacation when we lacked the local 'passes,' Edwin Buettner suggests how difficult these systems would be for those who live outside the city but must come in on occasion for appointments downtown.
City employees calculated the savings of removing the meters, but what are the costs of failing to provide access to downtown parking for those without cellphones, tourists, and out-of-town Manitobans who need medical care? The city must calculate costs to provide parking booklet sales elsewhere in the city, especially at hotels and convenience stores.
When we discussed these parking issues, other solutions came up. Our household lives in a city neighbourhood. We must have parking permits for street parking. Yearly, we take photos of our driver's licences, car registration, and submit a form.
Eventually someone calls us back and takes payment over the phone. What if, after the first registration, we received a 'renewal' email that said, 'According to city records, you live at the same address and have the same two cars as last year. Care to renew your permit? If so, click here. Pay online.'
This would reduce costs and save time for the city and those who need street parking. A bigger revenue generator could follow. When tradespeople visit a city neighbourhood like ours with permit parking, they risk tickets if they park for too long. High school students parking on streets near private schools also risk tickets daily. Those who go downtown but fail to make the app or the meter work also hazard parking tickets.
Imagine a 'super pass.' The city could set a flat fee, payable once a year, so that electricians, plumbers, realtors, students and theatre-goers could park legally in metered or permit areas without using an app or risking a ticket. The super pass would be available online, or at convenience stores and other locations where people might get parking booklets. Winnipeggers and tourists could choose options: download the app, buy single tickets for one trip to a downtown doctor's office or buy a whole year's pass and stop worrying about parking.
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Of course, the yearly fee concept must be worked out, but $500 or more might result in more visitor traffic downtown and many fewer parking tickets. Reducing system inefficiencies, like creating an easy online renewal system that links up with our addresses and car registrations, would also reduce costs.
This might boost interest in coming downtown to the Exchange, to theatre venues or festivals. Offering multiple options for parking payment might boost the city's coffers. Better yet, it could reduce citizens' anger over the difficulties in downtown parking and the parking tickets that follow.
Jamestown, N.Y. is a long way away. Even so, I'd go right back to crank my change in the old-fashioned meters, check out the scenery, eat a good lunch, and wander its historic downtown.
City officials should think about how coming downtown can generate goodwill as well as income. Ripping out the current parking meters may be necessary, but it's what follows that matters. Obstacles to parking will build or destroy Winnipeggers' interest in visiting downtown. Offering multiple approaches to future downtown parking creates a better, more inclusive outcome for all of us.
Joanne Seiff, a Winnipeg author, has been contributing opinions and analysis to the Free Press since 2009.