Crunch time at the parking ramp, plus yellow lights and a little math
Posted on November 9th, 2008 – 11:01 AMBy Roadguy
Here’s my column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.
Mill Quarter parking ramp, 10 p.m. Thursday
IS PAY-AS-YOU-LEAVE THE ONLY WAY TO GO?
After last week’s discussion of parking rates, alert reader Amy has a question about a couple of ramps near the Guthrie Theater:
Why, when parking for an event, do you need to wait until you leave the ramp to pay? That means after plays, or I suppose games at the Dome, a gazillion people need to stand in long lines at the pay machines, plus then wait in long lines when exiting. If you’re paying an event rate, why can’t you pay when you enter?
Alert reader Wayne also wrote in, describing a “grumbling mob scene at the ticketing machines.” (Roadguy got to witness this on Thursday after he attended “A View from the Bridge,” which, by the way, is not about infrastructure.)
Matt Laible, a city spokesman, said that the automated payment systems at the ramps don’t allow for a switchover from “pay as you leave” to “pay as you enter.”
But ramp managers do set up a prepay system at the ramp right in front of the Guthrie during Vikings and Gophers games or on certain nights when all three of the Guthrie’s stages have shows. However, this requires staffing the ramps, which cuts into city revenue.
YELLOW THOUGHTS
Alert reader Stephen from Plymouth has an observation about what happens when a traffic light turns amber:
The first question that many drivers appear to ask themselves is, “Can I make it without speeding up?” Unfortunately, some drivers are less than skilled at correctly predicting this answer, resulting in cars running lights at speeds at or exceeding the speed limit — a very dangerous situation. Perhaps the driving, biking, and pedestrian public would be better served if the first question drivers asked themselves was instead, “Can I stop without slamming on the brakes?”
The Minnesota Driver’s Manual basically shares Stephen’s view: “Do not enter the intersection if you can stop safely before doing so.” Unfortunately, Roadguy suspects that the real question many drivers are asking themselves is “Will I get caught if I run it?”
RECALCULATING A COMMUTE
A few weeks ago I wrote about riding my bike to work for the first time in my adult life, and I noted that, compared with driving, my commute went from 11 or 12 minutes to about 20 minutes.
I’ve since realized that there’s a factor I forgot to consider: Journalists, by virtue of their weird schedules, are often exempt from rush hour. (If you want some quiet time, visit the Star Tribune newsroom before 9 a.m.)
A couple of times in the past few weeks, I’ve had to drive to work during what traffic managers call the “peak hour,” and it took me at least 15 minutes — not a huge increase, but it reduces the gap between bike and car commuting to about five minutes.
Because my bike route to work is via off-road paths and separated lanes, my two-wheeled commute would be largely unobstructed by vehicular slowdowns during rush hours.
Something to keep in mind — for spring.
4 Responses to "Crunch time at the parking ramp, plus yellow lights and a little math"
Roadguy says: “But ramp managers do set up a prepay system at the ramp right in front of the Guthrie during Vikings and Gophers games or on certain nights when all three of the Guthrie’s stages have shows.”
This is inaccurate–The ramp in front of the Guthrie has a prepay system whenever there is an event at the theater, or there is a Gophers, Vikings or Twins game at the Dome. The price varies depending on the event/game.
Isn’t it more accurate to say, “peak HOURS.” Rush “hour” seems to be expanding every year.
Prepaying requires the city to staff the ramps, cutting into profits? They aren’t actually saying that with a straight face, are they? Event parking prices are usually anywhere from $15-30 per car. I’m sure the attendants aren’t paid more than $12/hr. So, let’s say the event lasts 4 hours and there are 2 attendants on duty for 6 hours. If my math is correct, $12 times 12 hours equals $144. At $15 per car–the low end for event parking–the city is in the black after the first 10 cars, at $150.
To use having to pay attendants as a valid excuse to create such an inconvenience for people coming to spend money in the City is wrong on so many levels.
As for yellow lights, they
are a non-factor for the most part. The new rule of thumb is how long the light has been red before people actually stop. Many folks, especially those in left-turn lanes, now seem to think that if they sat through one red cycle they are grandfathered into the next green, regardless of whether the light is green when they get there or not.
As morg said, yellow lights are not a factor. The first thing drivers ask themselves when confronted with a yellow appears to be “can I make it through the red before traffic begins moving the other way?”
