The demolition and rebuilding of Chicago's downtown double-deck roadway, historic Wacker Drive, begins tomorrow. That project, which will take two years, has put the spotlight on downtown traffic and parking problems.
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One solution proposed by the City to the problem of traffic congestion is to eliminate much of the on-street parking, which is controlled by parking meters. Turn-over at remaining spaces theoretically would be enhanced by raising the cost of parking at a meter to 25 cents for every five minutes. Quick! Somebody find me a handful of Sacagaweas!
Unfortunately, all that would do is increase congestion by increasing the number of cars that are cruising in circles, looking for one of the remaining available on-street affordable parking spots. Downtown parking lots are avoided because they charge about seven dollars for the first half-hour, about twelve dollars for a full hour and twenty to twenty-two dollars or more for a full day. No wonder people like me choose to stay out of downtown as much as possible and work in the suburbs, where parking is readily available in huge, free lots.
What the City of Chicago really should do is build a whole bunch of short-term city parking lots on the outskirts of downtown, such as in the areas of Kinzie Street on the north, Halsted Street on the west and Roosevelt Road on the south. Then, run free Chicago Transit Authority downtown shuttle busses every five minutes on the north-south and east-west streets between the perimeter parking lots and the Loop. The busses wouldn't really be free. The cost of operating them would be offset by the parking fees paid at the new short-term lots.
The reason that people park on the street in the Loop, rather than use public transportation, is that they don't want to pay for both public and private transportation, particularly if you are running several errands downtown. If, however, you could get a "free" lift to your destination, without having to wait a long time, from a close-in parking space, I am convinced that close-in parking would be an acceptable option for many people.
The City could charge the same amount at the remote parking lots as they would have charged at on-street meters. They could charge three dollars an hour at the lots, which is the same as charging 25 cents per five minutes at meters, but use frequent increments, such as 75 cents per each 15 minutes. That way, short term parking, which is the goal of the program, would remain somewhat reasonable, while discouraging all-day parking, since three dollars per hour would add up to a quick thirty bucks for someone who parked at 7:30 to get to his downtown job that starts at 8:00, and returned at 5:30 after getting off work at 5:00. Those prices would be a sufficient deterrent to the average worker so as to be an adequate dis-incentive for all-day parking there.
The key to making such a program work would be to cover for those people who want to park at the curb on a downtown street for "just a minute" to run in and pick up someone or something important. While that type of parking only interrupts traffic briefly, there are enough people who do that, all day long, that the curb lane is blocked almost all day long by the "just-a-minute" types.
The way to cover for the just-a-minute types is to not charge for the first hour at these new lots. That way, instead of driving the final few blocks to a downtown high-rise, parking on the curb and screwing up traffic for the ten minutes it takes you to run in, catch an elevator, do your thing briefly, catch another elevator and run out, it wouldn't take any longer, or cost any more, to leave you car on the fringe of downtown and be driven by the CTA to your destination and back.
In fact, it might even take less time than by car, because with the reduced traffic congestion from the new, reasonably-priced-for-short-term parking lots, there would be far fewer cars on downtown streets, so the busses could whisk you right through.
The lots could also include "kiss-and-ride" facilities. Those are pick-up and drop-off sites for travelers who are being driven by car to a mass transit facility. Commuter train stations and airport shuttle systems have such facilities. Instead of fighting through downtown traffic to drop off or pick up somebody who is going to or from a downtown building, you could go to one of the downtown "kiss-and-rides" and get a free lift the rest of the way into the Loop.
Nah. The City would never do it. It makes too much sense.
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
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the street address uses a curb mail box,
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Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com