2019 Top 10 – #6: City Implements Progressive Parking Strategies
Before we bring you the Top 10 Key West Bike, Walk, Transit and Streets for People Stories of 2020 we are counting down last year’s 2019 Top 10 to refresh our memories of where we’ve been. Especially as many of the 2019 stories carry over into 2020. Each day we’ll share another story until we get to 2019’s #1 on December 18. THEN we’ll build on that and begin counting down 2020’s Top 10 till the end of the year. We hope you enjoy our 2019 Recap and our new 2020 stories throughout December. Thank you.
By Chris Hamilton; Thursday, December 26, 2019
Transportation researchers know that if you want to encourage more walking, biking and transit and to make a dent in traffic and parking congestion, cities must apply the right parking strategies. That means manage the parking you have to its maximum. Don’t give it away or subsidize it (underprice it), as this just encourages people to drive and park. This year, the city showed it understands by:
• Increasing the Resident Parking Permit from $10 to $20 annually
• Increasing the Workforce Downtown On Street Parking Permit from $120 to $175 per month
• Re-metering Smathers Beach, where everything is currently free, creating about 80 paid parking spaces on the beachside of S. Roosevelt Boulevard between Bertha Street and the end of the seawall
• Turning about 49 spaces near the Casa Marina (14 spaces in the 1500 block of Reynolds Street and 35 spaces in the 700 and 800 blocks of Seminole Street) from free parking into metered parking
• Turning approximately 135 formerly free spaces in the after-hours and weekends parking lot in Jackson Square and the 500 block of Thomas Street to metered parking (various permit parking holders get 4-hours free)
That’s more than 260 formerly wasteful, free parking spaces that people, mostly tourists, will now rightly have to pay for. It brings in some money for too. The City’s Parking Director should be applauded for recommending these progressive actions and the Manager and Commission for supporting them to help make our historic downtown more people friendly.
#7 Starting the Crosstown Greenway Project (Dec. 23)
#8 Duval Street Revitalization Sought Via RFQ (Dec. 22)
#9 City Rebuilds Atlantic Boulevard Bike Path (Dec. 21)
#10 City Addresses Closing the Gap at Admiral’s Cut (Dec. 20)
