PT BLOG


JVH comments on Parking News every day at PT Blog – log on at www.parkingtoday.com. Each month, there are at least 40 other comments like these, posted daily.


Snow Makes a Difference in Parking (Posted Feb. 19) I spoke with Charlie Brown of Charlie Brown’sAirport Park-


ing in Pittsburgh. He told me to call back; he had a problem: snow, snow, snow. The result of the largest snowfall in history, 3 feet of snow


covered the cars parked in his lot. And Charlie and his crew had to dig them out. I know this is an annual problem with some parking lot own-


ers. But those of us in milder climes don’t think a lot about it. Not only do they have to clear out the lot so people can get their cars out, they also have to figure out someplace to put the snow.And if they put the snow in open spaces, that means those spaces are no longer available for parking cars, at least until the next thaw. Snow means loss of money – not only the cost of removing it,


but also the loss of rentable space. If a space generates $10 a day and you lose 30 or 40 spaces that are filledwith 10-foot-high piles of snow, well, you do the math. Good luck, Charlie, and all the rest of you in the snowbelt, which I guess stretches from northern Georgia to the North Pole.


Snow, Part Deux (Posted Feb. 19) The new mayor of Baltimore told the populace last week or


so that it was OK to use lawn chairs, sawhorses and the like to “save” on-street spaces after they had dug them out of the snow. He changed his tune today and told folks that it was time to take in the“space holders.”The mayor now says he had hoped God would take care of the problem, but it’s been too cold to melt the snow. I commiserate with both sides on this one. If you spend an


hour and a lot of sweat digging out the space, then you should lay claim to it. However, from the city’s point of view, it’s a parking space and, well…you can’t reserve them. Baltimore is taking a middle-of-the-road approach. They are


asking that folks remove the clutter, but aren’t going to write tick- ets for a few more days. In the end, I’m not sure space-saving really works. What,


beside winter morality, is going to keep me from simply tossing the lawn chair or sawhorse on the sidewalk and parking my car? I just asked someone here in the office who comes from


snowy climes and was told that such action was very dangerous. It might mean that you could get flat tires or a good keying. People who dig out spaces take the “reserving” seriously. In


one case, a person returned to their car – after taking the “reserved” space – to find it filled with snow.Actually, that seems reasonable to me.


It’s Starting to Tickme Off … (Posted Feb. 21) (I askedMark Rimmer of Realistic TransportationAlterna-


tives to join me periodically on the Parking Blog. Here is his first effort. JVH)


Continued on Page 55 APRIL 2010 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com 53


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