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  • TSnow27604

    What’s the nicest way to tell people to park their cars and use the 2 legs God gave them. There is no downtown parking issue in my opinion.

  • HW

    Depends on what part of Downtown you are talking about. Some areas are better than others when it comes to parking. Other areas definitely need some planning as downtwon continues to grow. Better to plan now and get it right the first time than fail to look at the issue then try to correct problems after it is too late and more expensive to retrofit things.

  • http://www.smorgasbork.com/ Jason

    I’m always surprised when people complain about parking downtown. When we go out, we’re almost always able to get free parking. Even in a worst-case scenario, like going to Glen South on a Friday night, you can find garage parking for $2 or $3 for the time it takes to eat a meal.

    Maybe some of the whiners have never been to a big city before — it can be much worse. Try $14/hr in NYC, for example.

  • Ken Metzger

    One thing they need to fix is the $7 special event parking. Does the city want people to come downtown or not for their events?

  • JeffS

    The last thing we need downtown is more parking decks. There’s more than enough already. The people complaining are probably the ones who will circle the block for 30 minutes waiting for an on-street spot.

    Special events? Ever heard of a bus?

  • HW

    ^^ “Ever heard of a bus”

    Ever take a look at the route map and time schedule. The buses don’t serve a lot of people because there are no routes in their area and they have very limited schedules (especially at night). It also doesn’t do you very good to take the bus down to Glenwood Avenue or Moore Square if you plan to stay after 10pm. Try waiting for a bus at 11:00pm. You will see the sunrise before you see a bus.

  • RaleighRob

    I agree with some other commenters. Parking is an issue way overblown with downtown.
    If you’re not too lazy to walk 2-3 blocks from a parking deck (most of which are free on nights and weekends) then you normally shouldn’t have a problem.

    (If you ARE too lazy to do that…well then, parking is probably the least of your troubles! 😉 )

    But that said, I do agree with Ken about the high “special event” parking fees. I understand why they do that, though. Perhaps getting those trolleys out to do more rotations around downtown would help with that situation, allowing easy access from one district to another if you parked further.

  • TSnow27604

    I may have posted this under another topic but I attended a Raleigh2030 meeting and learned that there are more than 40,000 public parking spaces in DTR. Also, the city hired an outside consulting firm who stated that no more parking decks should be built anywhere near the Convention Center. Their reason is that you don’t want people driving into town, attending their event, and simply walking back to the car and leaving without getting out (and spending money) in our city.

  • RaleighRob

    ^Agreed. 40 thousand is a pretty decent amount. And the area around the convention center & Memorial Auditorium has probably almost third of them, if not more. Definitely don’t need any more in that area (although the L Building deck is currently under construction not far away).

    IF there is any parking problem in downtown Raleigh, it is a matter of education and signage, to let people have a better idea of where to park…when to park…and in some cases, HOW to park (ie, improve parallel parking in driver’s ed).

  • http://gogoraleigh.com Dana

    I did a post in February about how easy parking is downtown. The city needs to get the word out. The easiest way would be to have a standard backlit parking sign that appears at all public parking entrances. During hours that the parking is free, these signs should have red neon letters at the bottom displaying “FREE”. After people see these a few times while driving around downtown, perceptions will quickly change.

    http://www.gogoraleigh.com/2008/02/11/downtown-parking-easy/

  • HW

    Thanks for the info about the 40K parking spots. Yeah, that does sound like a lot. I am a bit puzzled about this comment from the consultants:

    ” Their reason is that you don’t want people driving into town, attending their event, and simply walking back to the car and leaving without getting out (and spending money) in our city.”

    That’s all well and good, but how are they proposing people get to downtown if they don’t drive? Please don’t say “The Bus” as we all know it has very limited service and doesn’t do you any good if you plan to spend and evening in downtown Raleigh past 10:00. Do we really want everyone to have to leave downtown by 10pm? Most people who don’t already live there are forced to drive downtown to attend events. They can’t take the bus even if they wanted to. I hope that changes with time.

    ~ HW

  • ChiefJoJo

    ^ Don’t think they meant they don’t want people to drive, period… just not drive in and leave right away.

    There are plenty of parking spaces in DTR (I heard we have as many spaces as DT Chicago), but there are problems. Parking is not priced correctly. Many of the most valuable spaces (on-street) are free, while the decks charge ~$1/hr. Only the DTR office crowd will use the decks for monthly parking, so when 5pm rolls around, the decks are nearly empty while people drive around the block over and over looking for a free 2-hour space. That isn’t good policy. In general, the spaces should be priced according to the demand. I’d love to see variable pricing, but not sure that will happen.

    Also, many retail store employees take the best spaces on the street that ought to be left for patrons. Need to educate business owners about this, but getting the pricing right should help here.

    There’s also a problem with consistent signing. How about a BIG “P” like most cities?

Posted by Dana on August 16, 2008 | Tags: Downtown , Transportation . | ( 12 ) Comments

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