Believe it or not, parking’s effects are as far-reaching as any important policy. A community’s parking options shape its culture, economics, and environment. It’s a dynamic and complicated topic: parking can reflect (or even spark) a neighborhood’s gentrifying tensions. It can empower or hamper under-served communities, like the disabled or elderly; it can create or take away billions of dollars in revenue. Parking effects pollution, safety, wealth, and, of course, accessibility. At MyParkingSign, we monitor and report the latest happenings in parking, be they bureaucratic, like increasing fines, technological, like a parking new app, or instructional, like how to manage parking legally and efficiently.
News
No parking meters in downtown Aurora
It’s official, parking meters in downtown Aurora (located in Illinois) saw their last sunset on May 13, 2013 as the city finally geared up for a free public parking system. All remaining parking meters were removed and passed on to the Aurora Historical Society. New sign boards that indicate areas which permit parking for 90 […]
Quebec Minister criticizes relaxation of parking restrictions for Jews during Shavuot
For almost thirty years, municipal authorities in a west-end Montreal borough Côte-des-Neiges-Notre—Dame-de-Grace have accommodated the Jewish holiday of Shauvot. During this time, they remove parking restrictions so that Jews observing the festival do not have to move their vehicles. Now, for the first time, Quebec Citizenship Minister Bernard Drainville has opposed this tradition. CBC News […]
Hybrid reserved parking called discriminatory in Chapel Hill
Town officials removed eight reserved parking signs (for hybrid and low-emission vehicles) in the upper lot of the Chapel Hill Public Library (in North Carolina) after residents deemed them discriminatory. Residents protested these hybrid parking signs saying that people like senior citizens, mothers with children, and others with greater needs than hybrid drivers could better […]
Orlando airport to spend $172M on new parking garage despite empty spots
Orlando International Airport officials are so confident about future business that they’re building a $172 million parking garage. What is puzzling about the project, however, is that the OIA already has thousands of open parking spots available. According to reports, the airport’s parking never sells out. The Orlando Sentinel reports, “It is common for fewer […]
NYC uses bike corrals to protect bikes from traffic
In his recent project, researcher and head of Center for Transportation and Livable Systems (CTLS) Dr. Nicholas Lownes developed a model that could effectively prevent violent collisions between freight vehicles and bicycles in major urban areas. According to his findings, installation of parking area dividers between bike lanes and the main street stopped heavy vehicles […]
Albany’s new parking permit system is not going well
Albany’s three-month-old parking permit system has already become the center of media attention, albeit for the wrong reasons. The parking permit system, started on January 15, 2013, is already overwhelmed with serious violations, leaving the city (located in New York state) in a mess. Meant for restricting street parking, the system is being violated by […]
NYC to quintuple fines for illegal street painting
Some New York City residents get aggressive about saving their parking spot, painting curbs yellow or scrawling messages like “24 Hour No Parking” in spray paint to prevent others from parking. Although street painting like this is considered illegal defacement, many still risk it, reasoning that other drivers and law enforcement officials will not realize […]
South England seeks £500,000 from foreigners in unpaid parking fines
Councils in South England are trying to recover more than £500,000 in parking fines owed by overseas drivers since 2009. Of this staggering amount, Oxfordshire has the lion’s share of £358,290 in unpaid fines. Portsmouth City Council is looking at recovering its fines (£143,666) through external contractor Euro Parking Council (EPC). (Report: BBC) Michael Robinson, […]
Disabled parking for tourists in NYC? Fuhgeddaboudit
How accessible is New York? John Robinson’s story sheds some light: John Robinson is 3’9” tall. Earlier this month, he was issued a parking ticket outside a restaurant in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Robinson, visiting New York City as a tourist, had parked on the street since there was no disabled parking space available. […]
Free parking fallacies: A conversation with Donald Shoup
[raw][/raw] Parking shares some of the disorienting beauty of fractal geometry – the more closely you examine it, the more bizarre the underlying economics and planning issues become. Engineer and economist Donald Shoup has been examining parking systems for the better part of thirty years, and his seminal book, The High Cost of Free Parking, is considered […]
Charlottetown mulls reserved parking for new mothers
New mother Angela Court is pushing for downtown reserved parking spaces in Charlottetown for pregnant women and new parents. “The 30-year-old mother called up city councillor Edward Rice on Monday, from her home in the Prince Edward Island capital, suggesting the idea for the reserved parking spots.” [Source: thestar.com] “I brought it up simply because […]