Any idea what is driving American Parking to more than double their fees?
I received a notice yesterday that the $19.95/mo lot I'm in is becoming a $39.95/mo lot.
The lot is at Archer and Boston and has ran about 50% full (not including the fenced off area for building work) since they closed the one just west of there but that is a HUGE increase.
If they are only half full, that means they have to charge twice as much to meet their business targets. Go somewhere else if you don't like it.
Kind of like the turnpike jacking up the price because the traffic count was down during the recession two years ago. Well, economy is improved, traffic is higher, so logically the toll should go back to where it was! Not!!
Ahhhh, turnpikes.... $2 billion in "off the books" debt for the state of Oklahoma.
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on November 02, 2010, 01:53:02 PM
Go somewhere else if you don't like it.
They've got me there since they are the sole provider of parking spots. I could park in the street but only if I show up at 6:00am.
I would likely be a little more OK with it if they used the money to repair the lots but they don't. It's always nice to show up Monday morning and have to weave around pot holes AND empty beer bottles to find a spot.
You could try parking on a lot on the bill white shuttle route and save some cash. Not sure where your office is but there are many parking lots with alternate people or just not monitored all over downtown.
Quote from: sgrizzle on November 02, 2010, 02:04:04 PM
You could try parking on a lot on the bill white shuttle route and save some cash. Not sure where your office is but there are many parking lots with alternate people or just not monitored all over downtown.
Anything within 2-3 blocks of the BOk Tower?
Archer and Boston is directly behind where the new Hotel will be built...wonder if that is driving the increase.
There is a stacked parking lot owned by the city at Cheyenne and 2nd.
Quote from: carltonplace on November 02, 2010, 02:42:22 PM
Archer and Boston is directly behind where the new Hotel will be built...wonder if that is driving the increase.
There is a stacked parking lot owned by the city at Cheyenne and 2nd.
you're referring to the 100 West lot, correct? The new one that's five levels high?
When the city moved into the new building they raised the rates on the garage I parked in (Murphy) from 55 to 60.. then $90/mo. So I could park in a garage where the door frequently broke and birds shat all over my car.
GTFO their lot if they do that to you. Sadly I still park in an American lot, but they make a lot less off me.
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on November 02, 2010, 01:53:02 PM
If they are only half full, that means they have to charge twice as much to meet their business targets. Go somewhere else if you don't like it.
Kind of like the turnpike jacking up the price because the traffic count was down during the recession two years ago. Well, economy is improved, traffic is higher, so logically the toll should go back to where it was! Not!!
Ahhhh, turnpikes.... $2 billion in "off the books" debt for the state of Oklahoma.
Hiero, what do you want from the turnpike authority? Would you rather they not make decisions to handle the $2 billion in debt judiciously so that it does not become an issue for the taxpayers of Oklahoma? If I can channel Weatherdemon, if you don't like the tolls, take a different road.
AP and CP are merely managing firms and they do not control the rates for parking. Pretty much all of the parking downtown is controlled by the Tulsa Parking Authority. Any rate hikes are sent down from on high.
Why are the rates going up?
Because they can.
Oklahomans are too lazy to walk more than a block and heaven forbid we take mass transit. I'm guilty here too, not just pointing fingers. But you stated there isn't another convinient lot nearby and you don't want to walk... so pay to play.
What makes me angry is that the more profitable a lot is, the more lots will remain and we might get more! Unless they are SOOO profitable they need to build a new ramp.
Maybe the rate increase is paying for the new ramp for George Kaiser et al.?
Quote from: cannon_fodder on November 24, 2010, 01:15:22 PM
Why are the rates going up?
Because they can.
Oklahomans are too lazy to walk more than a block and heaven forbid we take mass transit. I'm guilty here too, not just pointing fingers. But you stated there isn't another convinient lot nearby and you don't want to walk... so pay to play.
What makes me angry is that the more profitable a lot is, the more lots will remain and we might get more! Unless they are SOOO profitable they need to build a new ramp.
Maybe the rate increase is paying for the new ramp for George Kaiser et al.?
I wouldn't mind using mass transit except for that MTTA likely used first grader to cobble their routes together. I understand we're a medium sized market, but really?
I want them to end.
As was promise 50 years ago.
And not have that $2 billion slush fund for political payback, hack, and cronyism just floating around for the politician-du-jour.
And as the predominant theme through most of my posts goes, I want the lies to end about how "great" it is that we get someone else to pay for our roads. We are paying for those roads. The vast majority of riders are Oklahoman. And we do lose economic opportunity for having those - all the way from tourists who go around us to north and south to companies that keep their trucks from coming through here to avoid the tolls - this I know from personal experience while driving a truck nationwide (losing fuel sales, restaurant sales, hotel/motel, convention traffic.)
Conjecture moment here; I suspect that if there were an honest evaluation done, it would reveal the lost economic opportunity far exceeds the piddly little $180 or 190 million they take in every year.
I do take different roads - many times. Which could bring us to a whole new topic...the state of Oklahoma roads in general.
Quote from: cannon_fodder on November 24, 2010, 01:15:22 PM
Why are the rates going up?
Because they can.
Oklahomans are too lazy to walk more than a block and heaven forbid we take mass transit. I'm guilty here too, not just pointing fingers. But you stated there isn't another convinient lot nearby and you don't want to walk... so pay to play.
What makes me angry is that the more profitable a lot is, the more lots will remain and we might get more! Unless they are SOOO profitable they need to build a new ramp.
Maybe the rate increase is paying for the new ramp for George Kaiser et al.?
Downtown's not that big. There's a cheap lot within half a mile of anywhere downtown. But, as you said, people don't want to walk five or 10 minutes to save a few bucks.
Sixth and Elgin is $20/month. The big lot behind the Doubletree is $11/month. I have no sympathy for people complaining about paying $90/month in a city like Tulsa.
People in major cities don't just step off the train and arrive at work. Most walk half a mile or more from their transit station to their work.
Too bad we won't put a serious effort into a well developed mass transit system. Our buses are ok as far as they go - there just isn't enough of it.
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on November 24, 2010, 01:25:56 PM
Too bad we won't put a serious effort into a well developed mass transit system. Our buses are ok as far as they go - there just isn't enough of it.
Have you been on our busses lately? While some are okay, others are down right falling apart. And as stated before, their routes are all kinds of messed up. It should never take two hours to cross a city the size of Tulsa, never. Yet it has taken me that long before because of the crappy scheduling of the busses. I'm glad I have a vehicle again and don't have to worry about that anymore.
Early last spring was the last time. Last fall before that. They do wear down fast, don't they. Two hours is a symptom of the problem. Would take a ton of extra money and huge expansion of the system. And nobody wants the taxes to go up to pay for that.
In my case, the bus system was an incentive to get another car, while it should be the other way around.
The more I visit Dallas the more I wonder if it's even worthwhile to invest in transit a whole lot more than we already have. I want to use transit in that city, but every time I do, it involves a half mile or a mile of walking through parking lots, on narrow sidewalks next to high-speed roads, across giant intersections where turning motorists don't yield to pedestrians crossing legally, etc, etc.
I have no problem walking a mile or two in downtown/midtown Tulsa. There are quiet streets and ways to avoid feeling like a target for bad drivers. But when you get out in the sprawl of Tulsa or Dallas, walking a half mile becomes hellish. And that'd be the norm if you wanted to get anywhere via transit.
I have read that studies for transit companies indicate that most people are willing to walk about 1/4 mile to a transit stop. That also somewhat defines the density required for urban transit. Other types like the New Mexico Railrunner have park and ride lots.