Seems to me, before the city of Rehoboth Beach increases their parking rates it might be a good idea to reconsider the system we have. Yes, the meters…at least on the Avenue…are new so why didn’t they at least install the same type used up at the Convention Center instead of those which eat up change every three hours? Last year, there were a number of problems with meters not functioning at all or malfunctioning. At varying times throughout the season several meters would not take change feed. Calls were made and it took some time to rectify the situation…one call I made, myself, and was told to look out for a meter man/woman, report it to him/her. Apart from the fact that there didn’t seem too many visible, if one is an employee there is little opportunity to hang out on the median, waiting for someone to appear during a normal round. Leave a note on the windshield? How many beach-goers have access to paper and pen in their swim trunks/bikini?

There are the change machines. Quirky at best when they arbitrarily refuse to accept a $5 or $1 bill. Businesses have enough problems with people asking to buy quarters which, believe it or not, isn’t too practical for most simply because of the probability needing to then find quarters for themselves should they accommodate parkers needs. There is no sign indicating change machines on the median side of the machine booth…that’s evidenced by the number of people who, when apologetically refused quarters in a store they then ask where they are supposed to find them, then.

Then again, while it would ’disfigure’ the curbs on the sidewalks, why weren’t the parking spaces numbered there instead of on the roadside, behind parked vehicles? Take a day of just standing watching people feed their meters…can’t tell you how often most of us have been asked, “But how do I know what my number is…or which meter I’m supposed to park at?” Fortunately, most businesses have employees willing to go “show and tell” but this has caused more confusion than the powers that be would seem to think. Couldn’t tell you how often I’ve gone out to plug my meter at the appointed time, only to find some poor soul has already done so…no doubt believing they were plugging their own. And there is nothing I can do to amend this, myself.

Raise the fees if you must…even though the majority will not be happy with it…but maybe spend some of the projected increase on fine-tuning the system to make it more visitor friendly?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Rehoboth Beach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.