The answer: Both are contemplating dynamic--or surge--pricing.
Yesterday, USAToday reported that the fast-food chain Wendy's was planning to experiment with dynamic pricing--when the price of a product increases in real-time as demand increases--as early as next year. The reports were based on a comment made by Wendy's CEO Kirk Tanner. Company executives have since denied that they are planning to hike prices during the busier times of the day. This report was aired a few hours ago on NPR: "No, Wendy's isn't planning to introduce surge pricing."
Yesterday, dynamic pricing was also mentioned at the Common Council ad hoc Parking Study Committee meeting. The City is looking to upgrade the parking meter system to implement a digitized system that will accommodate credit and debit cards and mobile payment systems, as well as cash. One thing that seems certain to happen is that there will be paid parking of some sort the full length of Warren Street, from Front Street to Warren Street. Another thing being contemplated is dynamic pricing for parking--that is, the cost of parking will increase on weekends and during times of day when there is greater demand for parking. The goal seems to be to capitalize on visitors to Hudson and patrons of Warren Street restaurants.
Council president Tom DePietro, who chairs the Parking Study Committee, said he had identified eight companies that can provide the equipment needed for the upgrade. The plan is to have those companies make presentations to the committee over the next few months, with the goal of having an RFP (request for proposals) ready by summer. DePietro also indicated that $400,000, which he identified as the proceeds of the sale of 429 Warren Street, has been earmarked for the project.
COPYRIGHT 2024 CAROLE OSTERINK
In order to evaluate whether upgrading the meters would be cost-effective, it would be helpful to know just how much revenue the city currently nets on an annual basis from a) parking meters; and b) parking permits.
ReplyDeleteThis information is reported every month by the city treasurer. What is anticipated in the 2024 budget from parking meters is $184,000 and from parking permits is $75,000. What has been received so far in 2024 is $65,000 from meters and $16,775 from parking permits. The bigger numbers are revenue from parking tickets: $304,000 budgeted for 2024; $27,103 received so far in 2024.
DeleteThanks for providing the numbers, Carole.
DeleteIf the idea is to capitalize on visitors, then the digital system should allow for residents to have a parking pass to avoid the fees-- particularly below 3rd street where commercial traffic is limited and parking is primarily residential. Otherwise, it seems like yet another way for government to pick the pockets of residents. The cost of living in Hudson is high enough without additional fees being imposed. All this "progress" is seeming very regressive.
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another spurious statement by Depietro. It never ends.
ReplyDeleteThe most recent meeting that a parking meter company gave a presentation to the parking committee was at least 4 months ago. At the time, Depietro said that two more meter companies had to offer presentations before the committee could choose one to supply us with new meters. 4 months and nothing, and two of those months the committee didn't even meet! Now it's 8 companies!
Why wasn't there a presentation this month or last? Is the committee going to have two presentations at each of the next four meetings IF and WHEN THE COMMITTEE MEETS? Or just one presentation a month over the course of the next 12 months? This process will drag on and on and I guarantee that come December the committee will still be twiddling its thumbs and making impractical projections and dumb (or no) decisions. Why? Because Depietro and the council members are tasked with far too much and paid too little, the council is all over the place grasping at straws and they are all amateurs. I call it structural dysfunction, like a house of cards.
Do what the parking consultant you paid to tell you what to do told you what to do OVER ONE YEAR AGO, and do it first: Create a PARKING DEPARTMENT with a professional or two at the helm. Let them make the decisions and give the council members a break. They need it. Whatever you are trying to do will fail miserably! It already is. You haven't done ONE THING the consultant suggested except talk about one issue of the many he suggested. Your committee name says it all: The Parking Study committee. We don't need you to study the study. Get off the shitter, stop studying and try to make some decisions with lasting impact that benefit the people of Hudson and the downtown area. We don't have forever!
Aren't the parking rules confusing enough?
ReplyDeleteYes, they are, and the parking consultant pointed that out in his report to the city. His solution? Create a PARKING DEPARTMENT that makes all the decisions about parking. Let the city clerk do her clerk duties - Tracy Delaney was not hired as the city clerk to deal with parking matters or parking meters! Let her do her job. Parking enforcers should not be working for the police department, the police are supposed to be enforcing the law and keeping us safe. Nearly everything about parking in Hudson is confusing and a mess, and the longer there is no actual Parking Supervisor, the more difficult it becomes to straighten the mess out. Tom Depietro can't, and doesn't want to, do it.
DeleteThe city's approach to both the sidewalks and the parking issues are textbook examples of how not to get things done properly (or at all)! No one is accountable, no one is in charge. And the council chair tries his best to make jokes that no one laughs at.
Depietro "joked" at the beginning of the so-called meeting that he "would be happy to relinquish" his position as the chair of the parking study committee, adking if any others wanted to take his place. Tom laughed but no one else did. So professional. So encouraging. So hilarious. Who says something like that at a meeting of adults trying to "set the agenda for the year" while introducing new members to a committee tasked with huge responsibilities? Someone who has already checked out, that's who. And that is the problem, as I referred to previously - the useless house of cards.
ReplyDeleteThe so-called meeting, lasting all of 22 minutes and without Margaret Morris in attendance, was a complete waste of time without anything accomplished yet again. At least it didn't last for hours. Did Depietro announce that a meter vendor or two would be making a presentation at next month's meeting, if a meeting takes place? Of course not. Big surprise there! Stay tuned for more substantial progress from this so-called committee - some members show up in person, most are virtual, some don't show at all, monthly meetings are often cancelled or not scheduled at all and the person supposedly in charge of this important "study committee" is ready to give up or already has.
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Ok, so the idea is to punish by gouging the population the city counts on for its very existence, the said visitors and restaurant patrons. Nice. There's hospitality for you. What about the visitors who aren't rich? People who can only afford a stroll down Warren and window shop. Maybe enjoy a sandwich and dessert. Such tactics dissuade certain classes from participating equally in the city. Is this what Hudson has become? "Capitalize" on visitors? Cool.
ReplyDeleteWe looked at this idea when I was an alderman. In my research, I didn't find any examples of municipalities attempting to increase revenue via demand pricing. Rather, they were trying to incentivize drivers to use economic decision making when deciding where to park in order to create more "traffic" in the most desireable spots. To use Hudson as an example, by increasing the cost of a metered spot on Warren during business hours and leaving all other parking areas unchanged (free or half the price of Warren parking), theoretically, those parking for longer periods (i.e. shop owners and employees) will opt to park somewhere other than on Warren. This has been shown to work in San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the idea of pushing cars off Warren onto the side streets isn't a great idea. There is already too much traffic on State St. for example, the window ledges are quickly covered with soot from exhaust and at night the street is totally packed with parked cars. Reducing cars would certainly improve the quality of life for residents, but with HHA developers now unleashed by the city and out of control it's only going to get worse.
DeleteI don't know what HHA developers are but I know pointless bitching when I read it. There is no metered parking in Hudson at night so your analysis starts off flawed. Soot on window sills in cities isn't new or unique. So it ends flawed, too. In essence, you provide no argument against demand-based parking meters at all.
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ReplyDeleteTraditional coin-operated parking meters have one big advantage over more technologically advanced systems -- namely, old-school parking meters cannot be digitally hacked and subject to ransomware attacks. Meters that are part of the Internet of things are vulnerable and, thus, one more thing to worry about.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. Keep it simple. The city employees dealing with our meters have a difficult enough time with them as it is, no need to add more things to go wrong and be impossible or really difficult to fix. Stick with the quarters meters - they're simple, fairly easy to fix by most anyone who is trained, classy and old school funky. No credit cards for parking in Hudson! Don't just do it because everyone else is.
DeleteI hope the Parking Study Committee does its homework. I googled "ransomware" and "parking," which pulled up headlines such as these...
ReplyDelete"ParkMobile LLC Breach Exposes License Plate Data, Mobile Numbers of 21M Users"
"Ransomware attack targets smart parking meter data"
"Smart Parking Meter Company CivicSmart Hit by Sodinokibi Ransomware"