Machines are poorly lit, confusing, batteries die, and are slow to respond (uses 2g technology)
Actually the price of parking in downtown Amherst is relatively cheap, fifty cents per hour. But if you use the convenience of a credit card, which accounts for 34% of our revenues, the bank transaction fee gobbles up 27% of that, a significant portion.
And since the town is tied into the current machines, which run on proprietary software, there's no way to switch vendor's now. So rather than raise the bridge the Select Board is thinking about lowering the water: instituting a two hour ($1.00) minimum charge for use of credit cards.
Although, as Finance Director Sandy Pooler points out, it would almost be cheaper to make very short term parking free -- except of course the town generates significant revenues on parking tickets.
The old stuck between a car and a parking meter.
10 comments:
Luckily I live in Pelham so I don't have to be a part of the madness that is Amherst government, but I do shop in town and put lots of money into the meters. Amherst has the most backward concept of encouraging shoppers to come to town. And whomever decided to use this system should be fired. The machines are so problematic that I almost never approach one without having to explain to an outsider how they work (or don't in most cases). Amazing. It is as if the town decided to do everything they could to discourage anyone from parking and spending money with local merchants.
And how would it be determined that you were a short term parker?
The same way they enforce the two hours time limit per spot.
(Use chalk on the tires to mark cars and take note of time.)
This is why people shop at the mall.
Classic Amherst. Find the worst possible way of doing something, make it hard on people who need to use it, and make it so you actually pay nearly as much in fees as you do in revenue. Welcome to Amherst aka Tsrehma. How it was originally spelled but the town is so backwards they thought reversing the name would help. And it doesn't offend anyone that way either.
I like the convenience of the mailbox outside town hall to pay bills- Can we get a free/ short term parking space (that isn't a truck loading zone) somewhere near it (for the minute or two it takes to utilize it)
It would be great to have better lighting around those parking lot payment machines, for night time use. The lot behind CVS is the worst for this since it is not very well lit, and since the parking there is enforced until 8 pm.
Another thought: if enforcement there ended at 6 pm, as most of the other lots do, it might encourage more people to use that lot when visiting downtown at night.
The problem with the machines is that if you don't enter all three digits of your space fast enough, it goes into another mode which prevents anyone from using it until it resets itself 3-5 minutes later.
And you really have no way of knowing if you paid for your space or a different one.
So people get tickets, pay them because it is easier than fighting them, and then go to the mall next time and the time thereafter....
I have nothing against the machine method of paying; my quarrel is with the particular machines that were installed. As 10:10 says, the keys are either too sensitive or insensitive so it usually takes 3 or 4 tries to get the correct space number punched in; also, unless the ambient lighting is just right, it's hard to read the screens, and no receipt is available. I think someone could have done a better job vetting these units under all conditions before committing to using them.
This comment is late, but if you want to get angry about parking, look at the size and EXTRAS on a Toyota pick up one of the parking attendants owns. The truck is about the size of the Queen Mary. I didn't realize our parking fines were funding toys like this. Parking is a total scam in Amherst. Las Vegas could learn something from their tactics. Parking enforcement has enough money to afford their enforcement vehicles also. I guess walking and getting exercise wasn't good enough. Although I'm not sure how much they use the vehicle. To empty meters all they had to do was borrow a DPW truck or one of many police vehicles.
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