Jolt
Afternoon Jolt: City Announces Parking Changes
Today's winner: Businesses and residents who complained about new, higher proposed parking rates throughout the center city and in Fremont. They got their way today, when the city announced revised new parking rates that are mostly lower than the initial proposal.
Learn to trust the Cola. As we first reported yesterday morning, the city will reduce parking rates from the previously announced new levels in most neighborhoods where rate increases were proposed.
Under the latest proposal, 2011 meter rates will increase in four neighborhoods, decrease in 11 neighborhoods and stay the same as 2010 rates in seven neighborhoods. The result, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation, will be that rates in 73 percent of paid spaces will be the same as or less than 2010 rates next year.
The initial new rates, announced just two weeks ago, were controversial among neighborhood and business groups, which asked the city to do more analysis of the parking stats before raising rates. Opponents of the new rates disagreed with is the city’s interpretation of how parking stats collected by the city last year should be used. Focusing on hours of “peak” use, they’ve pointed out, doesn’t take into account that parking is used much less heavily for most of the day.
These modifications are a reflection of the mayor’s and City Council’s commitment to data-driven policies to make it more likely for motorists to find an open spot on the street," SDOT traffic director Charles Bookman said in a statement.
Rates will go down in Ballard, North and South Belltown, the Denny Triangle North, Greenlake, Roosevelt, South Lake Union short-term parking spaces, the U District, Uptown, the Uptown Triangle, and Westlake Ave. North. Rates will stay the same on 12th Ave. and in Cherry Hill, Chinatown, Denny Triangle South, Fremont, Pike-Pine, and South Lake Union's long-term parking spaces. Rates will only increase in Capitol Hill, the Commercial Core, First Hill, and Pioneer Square---and the rate in Pioneer Square will now be $3.50, instead of the $4 SDOT initially proposed.
Under the original proposal, the city planned to raise rates in eight neighborhoods: First Hill (from $2 to $4), the commercial core (from $2.50 to $4), Pioneer Square (from $2.50 to $4), Capitol Hill (from $2 to $3), Cherry Hill (from $1.50 to $2), Pike-Pine (from $2 to $3), 12th Ave. (from $1.50 to $2), Chinatown (from $2.50 to 3), and Fremont (from $1.50 to $2), and to lower rates in four neighborhoods---Uptown (from $2 to $1.50), north Belltown (from $2.50 to $2), the Denny Triangle (from $2.50 to $2) and the Uptown Triangle (from $2 to $1). Rates would have stayed the same in six neighborhoods.
Here's a chart and a map showing the new rates and how they're distributed geographically.
Learn to trust the Cola. As we first reported yesterday morning, the city will reduce parking rates from the previously announced new levels in most neighborhoods where rate increases were proposed.
Under the latest proposal, 2011 meter rates will increase in four neighborhoods, decrease in 11 neighborhoods and stay the same as 2010 rates in seven neighborhoods. The result, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation, will be that rates in 73 percent of paid spaces will be the same as or less than 2010 rates next year.
The initial new rates, announced just two weeks ago, were controversial among neighborhood and business groups, which asked the city to do more analysis of the parking stats before raising rates. Opponents of the new rates disagreed with is the city’s interpretation of how parking stats collected by the city last year should be used. Focusing on hours of “peak” use, they’ve pointed out, doesn’t take into account that parking is used much less heavily for most of the day.
These modifications are a reflection of the mayor’s and City Council’s commitment to data-driven policies to make it more likely for motorists to find an open spot on the street," SDOT traffic director Charles Bookman said in a statement.
Rates will go down in Ballard, North and South Belltown, the Denny Triangle North, Greenlake, Roosevelt, South Lake Union short-term parking spaces, the U District, Uptown, the Uptown Triangle, and Westlake Ave. North. Rates will stay the same on 12th Ave. and in Cherry Hill, Chinatown, Denny Triangle South, Fremont, Pike-Pine, and South Lake Union's long-term parking spaces. Rates will only increase in Capitol Hill, the Commercial Core, First Hill, and Pioneer Square---and the rate in Pioneer Square will now be $3.50, instead of the $4 SDOT initially proposed.
Under the original proposal, the city planned to raise rates in eight neighborhoods: First Hill (from $2 to $4), the commercial core (from $2.50 to $4), Pioneer Square (from $2.50 to $4), Capitol Hill (from $2 to $3), Cherry Hill (from $1.50 to $2), Pike-Pine (from $2 to $3), 12th Ave. (from $1.50 to $2), Chinatown (from $2.50 to 3), and Fremont (from $1.50 to $2), and to lower rates in four neighborhoods---Uptown (from $2 to $1.50), north Belltown (from $2.50 to $2), the Denny Triangle (from $2.50 to $2) and the Uptown Triangle (from $2 to $1). Rates would have stayed the same in six neighborhoods.
Here's a chart and a map showing the new rates and how they're distributed geographically.
