Why Xmas free parking went away

I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy, the kind of a guy who researches facts before forming an opinion, and before I start writing.

Yes, there are a few of us left.

I also have something of great value to reporters — a bullshit detector. Not to brag, but not much gets past me. My ears twitch when they hear something that just doesn’t sound right. 

That’s how I felt when it was reported that the city was terminating the decades-old courtesy of free parking on Saturdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas in the business district.

The Grinch’s city’s reason, dutifully passed along by the media, was that the program did not achieve the goal–to free up parking spots and increase turnover. The opposite was happening, said the city.

A city statement put it this way: “After analyzing parking trends, researching best practices, and talking to businesses, the City’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability (OTIS) determined that the policy of relaxed enforcement is counter-productive.”

It concluded with these words: “Free parking on Saturdays in December encouraged all-day on-street parking while discouraging the turnover that is needed for customers to find a spot and start shopping.”

Curious, I emailed the city’s press office for the name of the person who came up with the research, and why it took the city geniuses  20 years to figure out free parking was counterproductive. 

In response, the press office sent me a general announcement of its plan that did not answer my questions about who and why.

I was left with one big question: Most of the business district has a two-hour parking limit, whether paid or free.

Why doesn’t the city simply enforce the two-hour limit, I asked Philadelphia Parking Authority  spokesman Marty O’Rourke.

As usual, he responded promptly and fully — and with something that caused me to do a double-take.

There is no two-hour time limit, he said. People can keep feeding the meter in person, or electronically using the Meter Up app.

What? I asked of no one in particular.

Sometime in the last century, in one of many columns I wrote about the Philadelphia Parking Authority, I remember one — based on information from the PPA — that after the two hours expire, motorists must find a new spot — and it can’t even be on the same block as the space you had just used.

I was stunned. You had to leave the block you were on? Wow. 

But there is no such thing, says O’Rourke, who checked in with a PPA veteran who has been there forever.

Since I no longer have access to the Daily News archives, and Google does not have everything I have ever written, I can’t find that column.

I also remember PEOs (parking enforcement officers) carrying a piece of chalk they used to mark tires, to see if they had been moved after the two hours had expired. That was to prevent all-day parking by hogging a meter.

Was I imagining all that?

I see three possibilities:

1- I was mistaken about what PPA told me years ago. 

2- PPA gave me bad information.

3- The information was correct then, but has since changed.

As of right now, you can refeed meters and stay all day, which defeats the purpose of the meter, to force turnover.

And the reason the city can’t enforce the two-hour limit is because there is no two-hour limit.

The solution seems simple: Restrict parking to the time shown on the sign, whether paid or free.

Will this happen?

Probably not.

Why?

The city wants the revenue from parking meters.