The following article appeared in the June 29 edition of the Guelph Tribune.
Hand-held computer devices are expected to come in very handy when it comes to enforcing the free two-hour parking on downtown streets approved by city council this week.
The devices will be vital in fighting abuses of the new meterless system that’s to be tested for 12 months, says Anna Marie O’Connell, the city’s parking facilities supervisor.
An enforcement program now being worked on by city staff is likely to include a prohibition on re-parking – parking a second time in the downtown within a specified period. This would be aimed at preventing people from abusing the new system by moving their cars to a different spot every two hours.
The city has 634 metered on-street parking spots downtown. The parking department has identified 234 vehicles consistently using on-street meters inappropriately for long-term use, said a report by a consultant hired by the city to look at other cities’ experiences with free two-hour on-street parking. Consultant Barbara Leibel told council June 18 that other cities offering free on-street parking have found it “a nightmare” to enforce.
LESS ABUSE BY MERCHANTS
However, Monday’s special council meeting on the parking issue heard a suggestion that capping the meters could result in less abuse of on-street parking by downtown merchants and employees, not more.
Appearing as a delegation, retail merchant Jenn Lamarre said free two-hour parking might reduce abuse of on-street parking by downtown employees, because it’s harder to move a car than to plug more money into a meter.
She was followed by another delegation, restaurant owner Harish Naidu, who frankly identified himself as one of those abusers. Naidu said it’s mostly merchants who use parking meters for more than two hours, as most visitors can do what they want within two hours.
‘I ABUSE IT MYSELF’
“I have a restaurant and I abuse it myself,” said Naidu, who told council that he repeatedly puts the 50-cent minimum in a meter, and in return he gets 20 minutes of parking plus a 30-minute grace period. That works out to one cent a minute for a prime parking spot, and “nobody catches me,” he said.
In Kitchener, which has free two-hour on-street parking downtown, if you move to a new spot after two hours you get a ticket, he added.
Coun. Vicki Beard said one concern some councillors have about free two-hour on-street parking is that downtown merchants and employees would use up more on-street spaces, reducing the availability of on-street parking.
Coun. Gloria Kovach said some merchants have told her that parking spaces in front of their stores are “blocked” by other merchants abusing the current meter system.
O’Connell told council that city operations director Derek McCaughan doesn’t want downtown parking enforcement to be “more aggressive” under the new meterless system than under the current system.
TECHNOLOGY WILL HELP
However, computer technology will be a big help in enforcing the new system, she said.
In a later interview, O’Connell said the hand-held computer devices used by the city’s downtown parking bylaw enforcement officers could help flag the licence numbers of people who try to park on downtown streets for more than two hours, in violation of a prohibition on re-parking.
Officers could enter licence plate numbers into the devices, which would be recorded along with the times. That stored information could be useful later in telling the officer that a car has been re-parked within a few hours, she said.
A big benefit of the devices is that they make it much quicker for the city to issue parking tickets, she said. And information on tickets is downloaded into the city’s computer system, rather than having to be entered by hand.
Upgraded hand-held devices acquired by the city last year even take photos, O’Connell said. That allows the officers to make a photographic record of a violation, such as the exact position of a car illegally parked in a “No Stopping” zone.