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�,�- z when appropriate and they only take coins for payment. Staff has been researching various parking systems for the past year, in order to fuliy understand the range of options available to the City. This research has included academic studies, reviews �� of parking strategies used by other cities, review of the latest parking technology available, and discussions with parking expert Doug Kolozsvari who spoke at The Forum in April. A selection of this research can be found on Page 46 of The Plan. Staff also spoke with representatives of several cities to learn about their approaches, including Palo Alto, San Mateo, and Burlingame. Berkeley and San Francisco were visited to try out various types of new meter equipment that are in use there. Staff has also learned about this equipment from representatives of vendors that sell it and cities that are using it, such as Portland, Oregon; Boston, Massachusetts; and West Hollywood, Califomia. Staff also held a series of three workshops with Downtown stakeholders in order to learn from them what their needs are and what they perceive as desirable solutions. The workshops were invaluable because they exposed the Downtown community to the challenges :hat lie ahead and options for meeting these challenges, and they exposed staff to the needs and desires of Downtown businesses and the peculiarities of how parking is used in Downtown. The goal ofthis research and outreach was to try to find a workable solution that will ensure an adequate amount of parking, good urban design, and customer-friendliness. The result is The Plan, which has been included as an attachment to this report. � Parking Management Recommendations 1 through 5 above relate to "parking management." The purpose of parking management is to ensure orderly use of the public parking supply, so that there are always spaces available to those who need them. Without parking management, long-term parkers such as employees and residents park in prime spaces that are intended for short-term parkers �uch as customers for shops and restaurants. These spaces then become congested and unavailable to those who need them, causing frustration, cruising (driving around the block over and over until a space becomes available), and the perception of a parking shortage. Recommendations #9 and #2• Base parking prices on the fair market rate and eliminate time limits. There are two primary tools that cities can use to manage their parking supply: prices and time limits. Prices are typically paid at a meter for curb parking, or to an attendant or pay station in a garage. By charging people for prime parking, long-term parkers are usually discouraged from congesting the spaces. Time limits are another way to discourage long-term parkers from '� congesting prime spaces. They work by setting a maximum period of time for which parking spaces may be occupied, and parkers who stay for longer are issued a citation. After research and analysis of the various parking management approaches in use (see pages 13 to 25 of The Plan), staff believes that prices are a much more effective way than time limits to ensure parking turnover in a busy downtown environment. A reliance on time limits seems to result in a lot of "ticket anxiety" and frustration for customers, and if proper pricing isn't in place congestion still seems to result—probably due in part to elaborate car-shuffling schemes developed by some merchants, employees, and other long-term parkers to avoid tickets while parking in prime areas. Pricing has shown to be a much more effective tool in managing parking in active downtowns. In order for pricing to be most effective, it must be based on the "market rate." That means that R�JEVSHARED_2005 STAFF REPORTS_06-2005 Staff Report Parking Management Plan 06-06-05 2 L7L. �