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Brookline drops some serious coin on parking meters
By adamg on Mon, 04/23/2012 - 7:32am
Brooklinian John Carroll is aghast his town spent $1 million on multi-car parking meters that it's about to rip out because locals don't like walking to the meters to get a ticket and then walking back to their cars to put the tickets on their windows:
Seriously? This is lamer than Chester on Gunsmoke.
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Comments
Opposite is true
I'm a Coolidge member and have been extremely grateful for the new meters. They offer more payment options, make it easier to max out the meters and make it easier for Brookline PD to see that I haven't exceeded the limit.
"We don't like new things" or "We're scared of technology" is no reason to get rid of a system that is a vast improvement over its predecessor and works just fine. Yet, I'm told, this is kind of how Brookline works. Not a resident, so I can't dictate policy, but as someone who feeds into the meters regularly I can say that it's a much more efficient system.
Yeah, I actually like them
Yeah, I actually like them too. I think it's stupid to get rid of them - just allow some more time for people to get used to them.
Not a resident either, but...
'Shiny new things' and 'higher-tech = improvement, always' are likewise not reasons to get rid of an existing system that apparently worked just fine for many. Park car, lock car, toss in quarters, enjoy your next two hours. Much faster and easier than having to hunt down the nearest ticket machine, dig out the credit card, wait for it to process, and go back to and re-unlock the car to put the ticket in it.
except the system didn't work
except the system didn't work well for many. I know tons of people that now drive into Brookline who previously didn't. I know lots of people who avoided the city until 6pm solely because of the meters.
From Seattle originally
We had these meters in Seattle for years. There was a similar outcry during their changeover, but the city found that the multispace meters actually aided fare collection (tougher to argue your meter was broken (also, less maintenance) or game the system via paper bag) AND citations (the stub or lack thereof made it much easier for patrolling cops to either scan bar codes and issue tickets or see a driver's parking validity right from the cruiser).
The multispace machine still accepts quarters, but the stubs are a godsend to parking authorities across the country. NYC has been using them to great effect in Manhattan and Seattle's program has been adopted by other Pacific Northwest cities.
A municipality only lays out for a parking system if there's potential for return on investment. That potential exists for Brookline, but it needs to stay the course and listen to the users who've embraced it.
Oh, and one other tiny reason...
No leftover time on meters. Whatever leftover time a parker is getting is time the city isn't being paid for. To a municipality, that's the major problem with the old meter system.
If people don't like walking
If people don't like walking back to their cars, Brookline should try painting numbers on the ground for each space. Then people could enter the space number in the multi meter instead of bringing a receipt back to the car. Also, meter maids can check the multi meter instead of each car.
don't v. can't
If people don't like walking that's one thing. Sounds like they are concerned about people that can't walk - or at least have trouble walking. Only thing is that if you have trouble walking you can get a handicap placard and if you have a placard you don't have to pay for the meter in Mass. And at least in Boston - they don't enforce the 2 hour limit (although with about 1 in 4 cars parked at downtown meters sporting a handicap tag you have to wonder if it's all on the up and up - especially the commercial pick-ups with the tool boxes in the bed of the truck).
Brookline has fallen victim
to its own "Parking Industrial Complex."
What an aggravating municipality.
Decree
All Brookline residents who want this system taken out are hereby prohibited from complaining about property taxes for the next 3 years.
I am a resident, and I agree that the central pay/ticket system works fine - and in most cases better than the old meters.
What does not work fine is the BrooklineCard - either at the meters or at the central pay stations. Both mine and my wife's are more often than not rejected. If we're looking for things to fix, let's fix something that is broken before we go changing things that work just fine.
Also, the increased costs associated with having municipal staff (usually cops in Brookline) collect the money from several hundred parking meters, combined with the fact that those collections will have to be more frequent since the parking rates have increased resulting in more coins being deposited, will make this foolishness cost far more than $1 million in the end.
The town is typically very well run and managed, in large part because of broad citizen participation in town government. This is an example, however, of a small vocal minority forcing an unnecessary and foolish policy change. There are other ways to accommodate seniors in town with respect to parking meters - as for the rest of the people who are complaining, suck it up.
They'll just argue
that 1 million was spent on the upgrades and only 100K on the downgrade.
Also, say someone else mention this, but there's some speculation that revenues dropped after making parking easier and they're worried, so going along with this front story.
Which would make sense, it's very easy to swipe a plastic card than pick change out of your cushion. Feeding the meter also becomes easier.
What are the benefits to
What are the benefits to using the BrooklineCard? It doesn't earn interest or reward points.
Is it for people who don't have debit/credit cards?
BrooklineCard benefit was mostly convenience for me
I preferred using the BrooklineCard because I hate fumbling with small change and because I did not want a series of $.25 or $1.00 charges on my debit/credit cards. I also liked to leave the BrooklineCard in my car, as I knew that my liability is capped at the nominal balance I kept on it (there is no personally identifiable info on the card). Despite the "zero-liability" stuff our credit car issuers like to brag about, it is a giant pain in the ass if you have a credit card stolen, even if your liability is capped. Hence, I was unwilling to leave such a card in my car.
You can also use the BrooklineCard to pay for stuff at lots of places in Brookline - although I did not use it for this purpose.
Don't give in, Brookline!
Stand strong and keep those meters. I have no problem paying for parking, but I do find myself avoiding places that have the old coin meters. Sure, it's not a particularly arduous task to get some quarters together, but if I can avoid it by paying with bills or a card, that's the route I'm going to take.
Also, do these complainers never leave Brookline? These types of meters are becoming the norm all over and, I bet, will only become more prevalent.
Digital
Not only that, It seems to me it be easy to tie these things in with smart phones and even cell service if one wanted to.
Imagine paying by a click of a button from your office? Better yet, if Stevils via parking space numbers way is implemented (and it should be) you now have relatively accurate information on which spaces are free, and which spaces are not. Wait until the road need their scheduled repayment, but when they do put in simple pressure censors and now you also know when a car is in the space and hasn't paid.
You can then price for congestion, and also let people know which spaces / areas might be free without them having to drive around causing more congestion.
Digital allows for on demand
Digital allows for on demand rate changes to assure more turnover at peak hours and allow some revenue for cheap overnight vs free parking. Also keeps people from using remaining time on meters since everyone has to pay -no free rides.
Demand based pricing? Now that's just too much!
The part about pricing according to demand is of course correct, but will happen at about the same time that we do that for highways - i.e., not anytime soon.
As for the overnight stuff, well, that's not an issue in Brookline, except in the very limited number of lots in which you can park overnight for a (fairly substantial) fee. You used to have to go police station to get these passes before the multi-space meters were installed - and it looks as though you will have to again soon. (Interesting note - those overnight permits are only supposed to be purchased by Brookline residents for their guests, which I'm sure was not/could not be enforced at the multi-space meters. If the overnight permit sales go back to the police station, that residency requirement might be enforced again - which will suck for the people just over the line in Brighton who used to take advantage of the program.)
Brookline has demand pricing
Around St. Mary's, where the price for parking goes up to $20 on Sox game nights (hmm, wonder if that will go down if demand for Sox tickets goes down).
As for Brighton, works both ways: I'm old enough to remember when Allston/Brighton didn't have residential parking permits, back in the day when I often got home at 2 or 3 in the morning (no, not because I was carousing, but because I was writing up selectmen's meetings out in the boonies) and had to circle forever to find a space and how wonderful it was when the permits finally came in and all those Brookline people were chased back into their own neck of the woods.
Demand has caught up with supply again, though
Ha! I suppose that is demand pricing in a sense, but I was thinking more along the lines of where the price is set according to real-time monitoring of the demand for parking spots - sort of a real-time dynamic demand pricing, where you'd walk up to a meter (or multi-space meter) and see how much it would cost if you parked there in the next X minutes.
As for Brighton street spots, it was good of you to mention that that phenomenon was in the (distant?) past - I don't think that you'd find anyone who lives in Brighton along the Brookline border who thinks there is now plenty of parking thanks to the resident sticker program. I never see any spots on the Brighton side after 6p on the streets between Beacon and Comm. and between Ayr Rd. and Washington St. (pretty much all of which are Resident Permit Parking Only).
How long has the resident parking program been in effect in that neck of the woods, anyway? It is definitely longer than 15 years.
Same but different...
I have used this type of meter elsewhere (Cambridge & Arlington being local expamples) but the Brookline ones have menu options that are confusing. You also can't get a do over if you select the wrong time after putting in cash - the first time I used one, I hit the option for more time than I had money and when I tried to back out it exited, gave me no ticket and kept the money. My complaints to various Brookline offices got no response at all. I have since assisted quite a number of folks, mostly older, standing in confusion in front of one of these puppoes. Maybe an improved software with an clearer user interface is the solution since it is halfway between "don't change a thing!" and "rip 'em out!"
A suggestion
If you believe that getting rid of the multi-space parking system is a mistake, then you may want to inform the Brookline Town Administrator who was quoted in the Globe article.
You can e-mail Mel Kleckner directly at [email protected] to let him know your opinion on the current parking system. It also appears that he has a completely unused Twitter account ( @TABrookline )...but it's possible that he reads tweets mentioning the account.
You may also want to contact the Board of Selectmen since the Administrator recommends policy changes to them but they are the ones to vote on changing policies. I assume this decision would have to go through them at some point.
Yes, do this
Email/call them all - Administrator and Board of Selectmen. The reason that he is reconsidering is that he has gotten way too many vocal opponents contacting him. Squeaky wheel. Well, supporters should squeak, too.