A few days ago, I happened to be on the 700 idrivingi block of Main St, between Goodell & Tupper Sts. Being spring, I took the opportunity to stop into Rick Cycle shop to check out some new iwheels.i Owner Tom greeted me in that icity of good neighborsi way he has about him. Then he asked me where I had parked?
I thought this was an unusual question. Why wasnit he asking me iwhat was I looking fori or iwas I in the market for a new bike?i
I told him I had actually taken the Metro Rail downtown, so hadnit needed to park anywhere. iWHY?i I asked.
He then told me the most amazing story.
He said business on Main St. has been challenging for years. All of the business owners were looking forward to the day when 2-way traffic would be reestablished, but theyid been fooled before. Meanwhile, though, it seemed that the city had yet again, added to the problems of the business owners.
About two weeks ago, just as spring had sprung and business was beginning to go into the full swing of bike-season, his customers were all getting PARKING TICKETS! They said how they had all put one or two quarters into the meters, only to have NOTHING register on the timers. So they assumed that the meters were broken, a totally reasonable assumption, given the frequency that they are broken. Many had even taken the time to write notes of ibroken meters,i placing them on their windshields, only to find a $30 ticket waiting for them upon returning to their car.
Tom heard this story many times over the next week. He decided to check it out for himself. He went outside to examine the meters in front of his shop. It was then that he noticed something new: a big round recently applied BLACK sticker, ONLY on the car-side of the meter, that said i$2 per Day. 8 quarters to activate meter.i The coin-slot side of the meter had no such sticker but did contain information inside the glass: iMaximum cost $2/10 hrs.i
He then noticed a big round RED sticker on the meters across the street. He went to check that one out. The RED sticker said that $.25 would be good for Ohm hour of parking.
He was confused by his findings but, having many things to do, he didnit really think about it until later that day when ANOTHER customer came in, complaining about the ibroken meters!i
Tom took a couple of quarters from the till, and went out to the meter in front of his store. In went a quarter; nothing happened. In went ANOTHER quarter; same result.
In Tomis world, dropping off/picking up a bike is usually done in 15-30 minutes, tops. Yet the price to park directly in front of Rickis Cycle Shop now seemed to be $2, whether you were there 15 minutes or 10 hours! The meters werenit ibroken,i per se, but confusing, and not very userfriendly to his customers, or any other of the businesses on his side of the street.
He wondered about the logic here. Wasnit Buffalo trying to ATTRACT businesses to Downtown?
Across the street, on the West side, there was a park, a parking lot, an enormous vacant building, and offices. This was where the $.25/1/2 hour parking was located. Yet on the retail/East side, the minimum cost of meter parking directly in front of the stores, parking cost $2. It made loading & unloading more difficult. It was inefficient and very user-unfriendly!
Iive been thinking about the concept of iuserfriendlyi quite a bit lately.
It came to mind when I was recently on Main St. in the University District, trying to navigate that never-ending mess of road construction while trying to cross the street without getting killed.
I thought about it while doing my post on busses in Buffalo and the lack of bus shelters for customers. I remember thinking about it while I was leaving Buffalo Placeis iReintroducing Traffic to Main Sti event at the Market Arcade Theater. I wondered if this reconfiguration would be done by people well versed in the complexities of urban pedestrians and mass trans users, or whether it was going to be yet another missed opportunity to make smart and really functional decisions that would genuinely ENHANCE the Downtown Buffalo experience.
It seems to me time and time again, the issue of iuserfriendlinessi seems to be missing in city of Buffalo planning, especially in the downtown area. I suppose this has to do with the fact that Buffalo has become a car-oriented place. It seems that the models explored in the relationship between cars/pedestrians here are based on suburban ideas. The unique issues of mass transit customers and pedestrians in general are not well addressed.
Urban iuserfriendlinessi must be the first & foremost issue when discussing the current changes and developments for downtown. Thereis been a lot of iJane Jacobsi talk in BRO lately. Iim not the most well versed student of her philosophies, but having actually lived and worked in the NYC of her writings, I can tell you that iuserfriendlinessi had a lot to do with her ideas of neighborhoods.
In urban neighborhoods where people of all types reside and intermingle in their day-to-day lives of work/play, there are unspoken systems. For example, in NYC, sidewalk traffic most of the time, takes on the same iflowi characteristics as car traffic; a 2-way flow of people; walking one way on the left & another on the right. Simple. And unspoken. One never has to THINK about it!
Thatis the point of iuserfriendliness;i it must be SIMPLE, SECOND NATURE and have CONTINUITY.
Having recently returned to Buffalo, Iim continuously baffled by how often I must take time to rethink and interpret common usage assumptions, such as this parking thing. Why must I experience an anxiety attack of a possible $30 ticket every time I park? Why must I take an extra 5 minutes to explore the details, worry whether my quarter will give me 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours, 10 hours or if indeed the meter is even working? When I view this parking situation through the eyes of downtown retailers and business owners, I wonder why are there any meters at all? I also wonder if the retailers/business owners were consulted for their input in defining these clumsy new parking regulations.
iUserfriendlinessi is important to everything in urban planning; the timing of traffic lights when people are crossing large streets such as Main Street, the placement of fences and barriers downtown that force pedestrians to walk around them in inclement weather, the lack of bus shelters at bus stops, etc. If one takes the time to actually experience life as a pedestrian, especially a downtown pedestrian, the problems quickly become clear.
Tomis customersi parking problems reminded me yet again of these iuserfriendlyi issues.
Will Buffalo be successful this time around in spending time, money and the good will of the citizen footing the bills in making wise decisions?
I certainly hope so.
And to Tomis customers; keep your blood pressure in check while saving yourself $30! Until further notice, make sure you read the fine print and park across the street for a quarter!
Rickis Cycle Shop
743 Main St
716.852.6838
Park across the street at RED meters/ $.25-1/2 hr
