Parking Downtown

[robertzimmerman]

At night and on weekends, there are loads of parking garages in office buildings for $5 or $6. Don't sucker for a surface lot.

[hammertime33]

Originally Posted by Z3N1TH 0N3

Is incredibly annoying. Is there a reason that the meters max out after 2 hours?

Yes. In dense urban centers, it's of vital importance (primarily to commerce) that parking be controlled to allow multiple users to reach multiple destinations.

I find it extremely annoying that I had to run out every 2 hours to feed the meter, and then, if you're just a few minutes late, you are still SOL.

Consider yourself lucky you're not getting ticketed twice - first for not paying the meter and then for parking beyond the 2 hour limit. It's illegal to go out and feed the meter every 2 hours - you actually have to move the car at least 100 feet away from the block you parked on. That parking spot is for everybody's use - not just yours to hog as long as you'd like.

[hammertime33]

Originally Posted by livecontent

You should not speak on Denver Parking Regulations and think that they are same as those in NYC. I am ex New Yorker and I know that NYC has very strict needed parking regulations because of very limited parking and extreme demand. However, this is Denver not New York City.

I decided to check your presumptive information and I read the Denver Parking Ordinances.

Parking/Traffic Municipal Ordinances

and so this is the what applies IN DENVER:

Sec. 54-465. - Parking in excess of seventy-two hours.
It shall be unlawful for any owner or operator of a vehicle to leave that vehicle parked in the same place
on a public street continuously for a period in excess of seventy-two (72) hours. A vehicle shall be
considered in violation of this subsection if it has not been moved at least one hundred (100) feet during
the seventy-two-hour period of time.
It shall be unlawful for the owner of an automobile junker to leave it parked on any public street for a
period in excess of seventy-two (72) hours, regardless of location. The seventy-two-hour time limit
includes the cumulative time spent on any public street.
For purposes of this section, an automobile junker is defined as a vehicle which is:
Apparently inoperable; and
Extensively damaged, such damage including but not limited to any of the following: broken
windows, windshield, or both; missing wheels, tires, motor, or transmission.
(Code 1950, § 519.9; Ord. No. 62-87, § 1, 2-2-87; Ord. No. 852-94, § 1, 10-24-94)



Livecontent

I moved to NYC 2 months ago after living in Denver for 25 of the last 29 years, and I have hundreds of posts in the Denver forum. I'm very familiar with parking in downtown Denver (I've both commuted to and lived in downtown Denver) as well as Denver parking ordinances. How is the ordinance you've posted related to the issue raised in the OP?

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by hammertime33

Yes. In dense urban centers, it's of vital importance (primarily to commerce) that parking be controlled to allow multiple users to reach multiple destinations.

Consider yourself lucky you're not getting ticketed twice - first for not paying the meter and then for parking beyond the 2 hour limit. It's illegal to go out and feed the meter every 2 hours - you actually have to move the car at least 100 feet away from the block you parked on. That parking spot is for everybody's use - not just yours to hog as long as you'd like.

I rarely feed a parking meter, as I drive very little and I always use Public Transit to Downtown Denver. So, I decided to look up the regulations.

Thank You for the information but it does not give total information. After 10 PM to 8 AM, the 2 hour limit does not apply in a metered space. So, a person enjoying downtown in the evening could start feeding the meter after 8 PM and still continue well into the night.

Overnight Meter Parking

In addition other regulations apply in non-metered spaces:

Parking/Traffic Municipal Ordinances

which specifies a 72 hour rule, Sec. 54-465. - Parking in excess of seventy-two hours

As a ex New Yorker, I know that NYC has very restricted rules for parking because of the limited parking and the extreme demand. In Denver, we do not have such an extreme problem. That is one of the reasons, I live here and no longer in NYC, for NYC has too many people and makes some aspects of living very stressful.

Livecontent

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Z3N1TH 0N3

...
I don't understand why the government would create this disincentive to come downtown and spend money.
...

Because downtown is an environment that can't survive becoming completely overrun with cars. It would cease to be downtown and become akin to a suburban shopping center.

Street parking spaces are essentially wasted space if there's no charge for them. They require teh street to be wider, which is harder on pedestrians. They lessen the amount of space available for building residences or commercial businesses. They require some level of upkeep (especially in the winter). People who use street spaces also tend to be people who live outside of downtown, so it's mostly people from outside the area creating a demand for a "feature" that is actually a detriment to the people who live there and don't drive. That's the kind of thing that absolutely should be charged for.

I don't know about the overnight regulations, but in general the two-hour limits are intended to make staying in a street spot longer than two hours inconvenient, because businesses generally need customer turn-over to profit. If all the street parking is taken up by office workers or people hanging out in the parks for 4 hours, then the shops get less customer traffic.

In Chicago the parking prices went up considerably a year or two ago. People complained and made it sound like the sky was going to fall, but you know what - street parking got MUCH easier, so people who actually needed to run quick errands could find parking and get in and out of shops more quickly. And contrary to predictions, there hasn't been some mass die-off of local shops. People who weren't in a hurry decided to walk or take the bus more often. In that regard, it's been win-win (leaving aside the controversy about how we ended up with new meters). Better utilization of transit and easier parking for people who are actually in a hurry. It's all part of a market economy - if you have something people want, especially if it's something that comes at a cost to people who don't want it, you should be charging for it. At the end of the day, you chose to live somewhere without easy non-car access to destinations you want to be. Chances are you made that decision at lease partly for cost reasons, so there's no rational reason people who made a difference choice should have to subsidize your cost-savings further.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by jamesdenver

If you live on the east consider the 15L. It's a long comfortable bus that only stops at major streets, and runs well into the night. Yes there are some oddball characters but as are on 16th Street Mall too. Runs up 15th and down 17th, close to pretty much everything.

83L Cherry Creek / Parker Rd is good too. It also runs late and on weekends, and doesn't tend to have the oddball characters that ride the 15.

[Z3N1TH 0N3]

Originally Posted by emathias

I don't know about the overnight regulations, but in general the two-hour limits are intended to make staying in a street spot longer than two hours inconvenient, because businesses generally need customer turn-over to profit. If all the street parking is taken up by office workers or people hanging out in the parks for 4 hours, then the shops get less customer traffic.

I understand this concept, but in this case, my buddy and I were at Wynkoops spending money on food, beverages, and billiards for about 3 hours...on a Monday night...when there was hardly anybody out. Anyway, as I said before, I'm just going to allocate my disposable income elsewhere for the time being. There are plenty of decent places for me to hang out in my neck of the woods.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by hammertime33

I moved to NYC 2 months ago after living in Denver for 25 of the last 29 years, and I have hundreds of posts in the Denver forum. I'm very familiar with parking in downtown Denver (I've both commuted to and lived in downtown Denver) as well as Denver parking ordinances. How is the ordinance you've posted related to the issue raised in the OP?

It does not and I was wrong to address you as such. I do apologize. I realized when I posted it that I was wrong and stupid. So, I immediately deleted the post. As you can see, I rephrased the post in a subsequent post. How you got it, I do not know but what can I say...sometimes I speak before I think.

Livecontent