Recently, my little town of Centreville, MD with its 3 traffic lights (sometimes working, sometimes not) decided to make all of the parking in town free.
They placed big red bags over the parking meters and in black sharpie wrote “free parking” on each of them.
An eye sore to say the least. And don’t even get me started on the lost revenue, every penny counts in a town of 2300ish residents.
Our Economic Development office thought it was a brilliant idea and that it would attract visitors. Trust me, we are NOT a tourist destination. Heck, our only hotel burned down last year, which is a good thing, it needed to be torched.
But the moratorium on parking fees did have an unintended consequence: The owners and employees of the town businesses now park right in front of their own businesses.
You see, the parking meters were a deterrent. Now instead of parking in front of the pizzeria, bank or attorney’s office, patrons of those businesses now have to scrounge for parking.
And before you ask, “YES” our parking woes have EVERYTHING to do with your business.
Let’s start with the most obvious; spaces close to your business should be for guests/patients, not employees and certainly not you. If I can’t find parking, I am probably not going to your restaurant or office.
And then there are the unintended consequences: the selfish and lazy business owners and employees using spaces meant for their customers.
I understand what our little government was trying to do, namely help our businesses. But as Ronald Reagan famously said “The worst words anyone could hear are ‘I am from the government, I am here to help‘”.
I really wish the government (local, federal, etc.) would stop trying to help me.
Bottom line: Prime parking is for paying customers (or a special bonus for an employee). Decisions need to be thought out completely and not just made nilly-willy. They could have the opposite effect as you intended.
