City To Give Park Atlanta The Boot? (legally, title)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Frankster87

I agree too. Pay for your parking, or get a ticket. It's simple. People are criticizing Park Atlanta for being efficient.

My only complaint is that they need to use their efficiency to also go after the people that illegally park where they should not be parking at all. I.e. - Bicycle lanes, in the middle of a street blocking traffic, being outside of the white lines near the streetcar, double parking, etc. The situation of people parking in bike lanes is especially bad on Edgewood Ave, and I have never had Park Atlanta answer their dedicated line for reporting that.

I agree.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeanuts

57 in a 55 is a different story. The speedometer has a margin of error.

Clocks aren't always in agreement either. You could use a stopwatch click it as soon as the ticket prints, I guess. But you could also calibrate your speedometer to be more accurate. To require either of them seems unreasonable. But you really have to, to be sure you don't get a ticket from Park Atlanta


Fact of the matter is, you shouldn't have to do either because that's not the point of the law/code.

[Aubie16]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I agree.

I think tiki is in the minority on this one. Pay for your parking. Move your car by the expiration or get a ticket. Pretty simple.

[magnetar]

The mayor said in an interview several months ago that getting rid of Park Atlanta was going to be one of the things he did in his second term. Their contract is expiring and at the time of the interview I read, they were discussing either having the city take over parking enforcement, or finding a new vendor. It's not about complaining about getting tickets, it's the shady and shoddy way Park Atlanta is run.

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeanuts

57 in a 55 is a different story. The speedometer has a margin of error.

I don't think that's why you pretty much get a 10 mph cushion on freeways in this state.

[jsvh]

Atlanta Weighs Solutions To Drivers’ Parking Meter Angst

...
Lessons From ‘The Parking Guru’

UCLA professor emeritus Donald Shoup wrote all about that point in his book, “The High Cost of Free Parking.”

Metered parking keeps spaces open, said Shoup, and that prevents people from cruising for parking, which in turn reduces traffic. It also lessens the need for the parking lots that clutter cities like Atlanta.

“I think if Atlanta looks around at what other cities are doing,” Shoup said, “like Miami Beach, they’ll find some good models.”

Shoup, sometimes known as the “parking guru,” has thought about how to improve the public’s perception of meters and the people who enforce them.

He said, some cities have noticed that around 5 percent of license plates account for a quarter of all tickets. So they use graduated fines. That means serial violators face steep costs, but those who are unlucky once or twice pay a nominal fee.

“Other cities go even further in that the first violation of the year is a warning. So it really shows that the city is trying to enforce the law but not to raise a lot of money and penalize occasional violators,” Shoup said.

If that idea doesn’t excite local governments, Shoup said cities could also consider charging residents less than tourists, dedicating parking fees to neighborhoods where they’re collected or even transforming meters into free Wi-Fi hubs.

He thinks all of these different efforts could turn around the bad rap that’s stuck with metered parking since it started in the 1930s.

“People thought of parking meters as an infernal combination of an alarm clock and a slot machine. You put your money in and you hope to get back before your time runs out, or you risk a ticket,” Shoup said. “But now I think technology is so good that we can convince people that you pay for parking like you pay for gasoline or anything else.”

Atlanta’s Next Parking Program: Still To Be Determined

In Atlanta, leaders still have some basic questions to answer about the city’s parking meters, said Yolanda Adrean, who leads the City Council’s transportation committee.

They’re going through residents’ complaints, she said, and considering whether a private company, like PARKAtlanta, should continue managing parking or if the city should take it over. They’re also debating whether to maintain the $5 million revenue stream the city currently receives from curb parking.

Asked if she could imagine Atlantans feeling good about parking enforcement, Adrean said, “I can imagine them feeling much better.”

“No one likes to pay for things, right?” Adrean said. ”But we can’t have Alpharetta-style parking in a city. We’re a city, not a suburb.”

The Atlanta City Council and mayor’s office have about four months to decide what Atlanta-style parking is.

Hope the city is listening to Shoup on parking!

[samiwas1]

I'll go on record as agreeing with Tiki. I'm all for enforcing parking and ticketing/booting cars when overstay their welcome or who are parked in a no parking zone. But this system of sitting by a car with the ticket ready to go exactly when the meter hits zero, or ticketing cars which aren't actually parked illegally is for the birds.

[arjay57]

Give folks a five minute leeway if they have no prior parking violations.

If they have prior violations, the fine should start at $150 and go up by $100 for each subsequent violation.

[onemanarmy]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

I'll go on record as agreeing with Tiki. I'm all for enforcing parking and ticketing/booting cars when overstay their welcome or who are parked in a no parking zone. But this system of sitting by a car with the ticket ready to go exactly when the meter hits zero, or ticketing cars which aren't actually parked illegally is for the birds.

No excuse for ticketing cars that are legally parked, but your first point makes zero sense. Should expired meters be given a grace period. What's the solution, only ticket cars that are illegally parked while casually observing them? If so, that's exactly what COA did before ParkAtlanta and it was ineffective. Pay the meter, or face a fine. People and their cars feel so entitled.

I'm ok with replacing ParkAtlanta, but only because of their customer service was abysmal. However, the only way to enforce parking is to ticket expired meters. That's not subjective, and ParkAtlanta was highly effective at this.

[ATLTJL]

I haven't used it, but I know there's some kind of app where you can pay for parking right from your phone instead of having to use the digital meters (which can be time consuming, from my experience).

Is this app not also smart enough to give you a little countdown and let you know when your time is about to expire and let you purchase more time before it does if you need to? If not, it should.