(7th post in a series of posts on parking)
Gadfly will flesh out and fact-check his notes below after looking at the video.
At the Sept 20 meeting, Tim Tracy of Desman Design made a presentation on the recommendation to raise the parking meter fees to $1.50 that included the following:
- The Bethlehem Parking Authority must cover its operating expenses, capital improvements, infrastructure, and debt through user fees
- Capital repair over the next 10 years is estimated at $6 million
- History shows that the on-street parking meter rate in 2002 was .50 and raised to the current $1.00 in 2012 (importantly, the off-street rate moved to an equivalent $1.00 as well in 2016)
- Meter rates are a “management tool,” and on-street rates can promote favorable turnover and drive long-term parkers into garages
- Since on-street and off-street rates are now equal, there is no incentive to use garages
- Comparison with a dozen or more other cities shows that the Bethlehem on-street rate is “under market”
- Hence, the recommendation to raise our rates from $1.00 to $1.50
- Benefits of the increase: increased revenue, more on-street parking available, and yet we would be at market rate
- A reminder that all BPA expenses are covered by user fees
- And that any surplus is fed back into the system
- The timeline: the mayor decides, projected implementation is January 1, and Desman would market and promote the change
- There is a plan to ease the transition into June, for instance, people using an app will pay the old price into June
