The Observation Deck

While out today riding up and down Detroit trying to be an eco-friendly billboard for Tom Bullock (who I support for Ward 2 council) I watched ODOT (I presume) employees painting parking stripes on the road surface.

Here are the ODOT employees in action….



A couple things occurred to me. One, you can’t see from this photo, but trust me they had to skip many spaces because cars were parked over top of where the lines were to go. Check out the block in front of Phoenix Coffee. Some lines now down, some not. How much in Sunday double-time are we spending to pay this crew to do only half the job? How often will they have to return to paint the remaining lines, perhaps also at double time? Why did it have to be done on a Sunday anyhow?

Also, check out the unusual vehicle being painted around. With Lakewood’s new cycling ordinances, bikes now enjoy the same right to the roadways as motor vehicles….



Lastly, anyone who has gone up and down Detroit without the seclusion of a steel cage has noticed that many parking places are being added for motorists. Here are eight that are soon to be available right downtown….



Now mind you the paint is not even dry on these parking places yet. But the quickest article I could find on the annual cost of an on-street parking place puts them at $1000 a year. Click here. I doubt very highly that Lakewood collects anywhere near what it costs to provide parking to maybe 10,000 cars a year on Lakewood streets, at $1,000 per space.

Why would there be a cost to a parking space?

Shawn Juris wrote:Why would there be a cost to a parking space?

Im a little perplexed too. Are you talking about the cost of meters, "parking enforcement" personnel, and so on? If that is the case, Lakewood has far, far less than 10,000 spaces. Id be surprised if there are much more than 1,000 public metered spaces.
On the other hand, a metered space needs to take in only $4 a day or so to make the $1,000 cost you cite. Doesnt seem to hard to achieve.
If you are talking about every space in front of every house on every side street, plus every spot in every private business lot, I am wondering what the "cost" is and who bears it?

Is it still ok to run red lights on a bicycle? That is one of my favorite things about bicycling.

Tim Liston wrote:
Now mind you the paint is not even dry on these parking places yet. But the quickest article I could find on the annual cost of an on-street parking place puts them at $1000 a year. Click here. I doubt very highly that Lakewood collects anywhere near what it costs to provide parking to maybe 10,000 cars a year on Lakewood streets, at $1,000 per space.

Soo are you saying that Lakewood should not provide on street parking because it doesnt pencil out? Because I would much prefer parallel street spots to a bunch of privately owned surface lots everywhere.