Government, Local News
Efficient cars will get best parking in C.R. parking ramps
Posted on Nov 22, 2009 by Rick Smith.
The parking garage Fourth Avenue SE at Fourth Street on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
CEDAR RAPIDS — Drivers of hybrid, alternative-fuel or zero-emission vehicles will get the best parking spots in the city’s Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue parking ramps.
The preferential treatment to encourage the use of energy-efficient vehicles likely will be adopted for other downtown parking ramps as well, said Sandy Pumphrey, a civil engineer in the city’s Public Works Department.
Pumphrey said the special parking designation might be just the thing to persuade a family to drive the hybrid car downtown for dinner and leave the sport-utility vehicle at home.
Pumphrey said other places across the nation that use a similar parking strategy depend on social pressure from the public to enforce parking ramp rules that set aside certain spots for fuel-saving vehicles.
“Obviously, if somebody sees you get into a Hummer and you are driving away from a space like that, it may be somebody who will give you a look that says you shouldn’t be doing that,” he said.
The city also intends to install electrical lines for charging stations in the parking ramps, as the city prepares for the time when those driving electric cars will need a place to plug in and recharge their batteries.
“Government is just trying to provide an incentive to going the direction that we should all be going anyway,” said City Council member Tom Podzimek.
The Third and Fourth Avenue parking ramps were damaged in the June 2008 flood, and renovations have begun on the Third Avenue ramp and are set to begin on the Fourth Avenue one. Both have been open for parkers.
The City Council discussed the Fourth Avenue ramp this week, noting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has concluded that the facility sustained $1.19 million in flood damage. The City Council expressed support for spending $305,645 on sustainable additions to the renovation project that FEMA will not cover.
Upgrades related to heating, cooling and lighting will earn the city a $54,000 utility-company incentive and will bring $22,121 in energy savings a year to the city, according to the city’s estimates.
Pumphrey notes that the approach at the Fourth Avenue parking ramp is being driven by the City Council’s directive to rebuild flood-damaged facilities better than they had been before the flood. Pumphrey said the Public Works Department has a mechanism to monitor if the city is getting the expected return on its extra investments.
what a stupid idea, talking about a waste of usable parking, and these vehicles are not that energy efficient when you plug everything into the equation……………………
It does seem a little limiting, but I doubt that many spaces will actually be reserved for this anyway. Maybe reserving spaces for compact vehicles instead – or "carpool" vehicles would make more sense. Either way its not really enforceable, nor does it really matter – just an incentive. Otherwise it's interesting / good the city is forward-thinking regarding future need for charging stations – which I imagine would warrant an additional user fee when / if ever actually implemented.
Makes me want to drive a big old truck with a smoky diesel a few laps around the parkade just to spite these tools.
Tools of the bondage of OPEC or joining in the American Revolution of Alternative Fuels and Energy Efficient Safer Transportation?
"Pumphrey said the special parking designation might be just the thing to persuade a family to drive the hybrid car downtown for dinner and leave the sport-utility vehicle at home."
On the other hand, not having a hybrid vehicle and thereby being pushed to less desirable parking, I'll likely not be going out dinner downtown.
This person has an engineering degree? From where? Correspondence courses?
Of all the stupid comments made by CR officials (and there are plenty) that has to be among the top 5 stupidest. Does this person live among us or is she on some other continent or planet?
How depressing. This city really is hopeless.
Politically correct parking has come to Cedar Rapids. It is doubtful malls and big box stores will practice the same discriminatory parking practices. Add another reason to the long list on why people do business elsewhere.
"The city also intends to install electrical lines for charging stations in the parking ramps, as the city prepares for the time when those driving electric cars will need a place to plug in and recharge their batteries."
There better be meters on these outlets charging for what is taken.
it would probably be free to recharge at tax payer expense, hey its the precious downtown, the most important thing in this h— hole of a city
Perfect; a shining example of the priorities of this city manager/council we have in place – put their agenda first, have them come out better than before with our money. They can find an extra $ 305 grand of local tax dollars to pump into a parking ramp; but you who actually pay the taxes can wait. Homeowners, wait, small businesses, wait, landlords, wait, veterans, wait, library, wait, fire department, wait. But low income housing, "green" gimmicks, and the upper tier of city employees go to the top of the list. What I am waiting for – January,2010.
Help! the wheels are about to fall off my car from hitting all the craters in Cedar Rapids streets! ,… hey, i know, lets build a 'green garage' for the 2 electric vehicles in iowa!!!! ARRRRRRGH!
Let's see…elected officials want to give rich people special parking spots downtown. Wonder how many of those rich people who can afford the hybrids donated to their campaigns?! This is a stupid, very stupid idea.
It does seem a bit shortsighted, since a number of non-hybrids are actually more efficient than some hybrids. But I don't think this is really a rich v. poor thing. I think it's a general consciousness for the environment, as well as wanting to be progressive. This probably isn't the most successful way, but it is something. I doubt that many spaces will be reserved for these vehicles anyway, so it isn't really a huge deal to get that upset about.
Maybe it should just be reserved parking for non-SUV's?
There are all kinds of ways to try to split people into the "good guys" and the "bad guys". None of them are exact, and none of them are things the government should be trying to do. If individual businesses want to do this for their own parking lots, go for it. If they lose customers, they'll change their mind. It they get more customers, it will catch on.
Who came up with this idiotic idea of creating two classes of citizens in Cedar Rapids? Those who can afford to buy new, more expensive hybrids, and the rest of us? Just FYI, the car I drive 90% of the time is not a hybrid, but it does get better gas mileage than many of the hybrids.
Sorry, put this policy in place and it just means the "regular people" will avoid downtown and opt for going places where they're not looked down on. I know I will.
Maybe next we can have special parking for people who drive luxury cars.
Craters in the roads are right on the money. CR roads are some of the worst in the country.
I don't see much of a demand for the spaces currently. Maybe that will change if people could afford the newer cars, I can't..
Don't we have bigger fish to fry in CR???
I would actually go back to driving a small, fuel-efficient car again if it wasn't for the condition of these roads.
Good – I've been trying to decide between the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid that gets 21 mpg and the Honda Fit that gets 33 mpg. Since the Tahoe will get special parking privileges and the more fuel-efficient Fit will not, I'm going with the giant SUV! Thanks!
"The city also intends to install electrical lines for charging stations in the parking ramps, as the city prepares for the time when those driving electric cars will need a place to plug in and recharge their batteries."
How high up will these be? Because electricity and water don't mix.
What is it you are trying to question here?
I think nomer is referring to when the ramp floods again?
It is interesting to see how out of touch many readers of the Gazette happen to be. In a little over a week, the Administration in Washington will attend the conference in Copenhagen on Carbon Dioxide emissions. Sooner or later, ever level of government will be imposing disincentives to activities that generate carbon. We already have reserved parking spaces for people who display handicapped hangers or plates – even though a substantial percentage of people using those places do not seem to have impaired mobility. Within a year or so, the major auto manufactures will be introducing electric cars like the Volt. Cedar Rapids is correctly attempting to deal with the future.
Where to start?
First off, nobody can "generate carbon". In fact, from a "global warming" perspective, that would be a good thing -turn CO2 into carbon and oxygen. But chemistry issues aside, the reality is Copenhagen won't change anything, especially after the scandals of the last week.
Second, people like my mother, may not "seem to have impaired mobility", but she experiences a lot of pain when walking. It keeps her at home more than she would like, and without handicapped parking she would get out even less. So I'd be careful about judging by appearances. On the other hand, hybrid drivers have no such need. In fact, maybe they should be parking at the tops of the ramp, saving the rest of us the gas to get up there.
3rd, from a practical aspect, is it the city's responsibility to fuel other people's cars by providing electricity? Will the electrical outlets require a payment of some kind not only to pay for the electricity used, but for the cost of installation? Maybe that will be taken care of when paying to exit the ramp.
Not even to mention the environmental hazards posed in the manufacture of the batteries used by hybrid vehicles. Oh, but as long as those chemical wastelands aren't in my back yard, I don't suppose they matter, do they?
This is an idiotic idea when we are facing so many more important challenges. If a family is only going to drive thier hybrid downtown if they get reserved parking then that explains the whole idea behind this stupidity.
Whatever happened to all those magic (electric) buses our City taxes bought?
great question, where are they?
They were sold for scrap to a guy in Hopkinton. Look up the story in the "Eye on the Island" blog by Rick Smith.
such a short life on those, wonder what the true cost was to Cedar Rapids for a failure of a vehicle.
seems like a waste of tax dollars
First of all, any one driving an ugly Hummer is simply on an ego trip. Secondly, the Hybrids aren't all that exspensive are they? Lasetly, our Pontiac Vibe gets 31+ city 34+ hiway with plenty of cargo space. However, i would purchase a hibrid .
So my gas Camry getting 33 mpg will be considered a second-rate car behind the Cadillac Escalade hybrid (20mpg), the BMW X6 hybrid (18 mpg), the GMC Yukon hybrid (21mpg), the Chevy Tahoe hybrid (21mpg), the Toyota Hilander hybrid (22mpg) and a whole bunch of other hybrid vehicles.
Don't you think there is something wrong with that??? Just because the 30-foot vehicle has the term "hybrid" in it does not make it fuel-efficient. Nor should it get priority parking spaces ahead of my little fuel-efficient NON-HYBRID car.
It's going to be very hard to enforce this. My car has a V8 and it gets up to 29 mpg highway, which is within spitting range of some compacts despite four extra cylinders.
I know I sound like a broken record BUT,,,,, Again, the elevator does not work in the 4th Avenue; has not worked since the flood. So NOW the city is going to reserve the spaces on the first floor for hybrids. Nice to way to pay back the parkers that have being paying month after month for to park in a 6 story parking garage without a working elevator. More food for thought, a number of the people parking in the 4th avenue are the state employees being asked to give up part of their salaries to balance the state budget! I don't think any of them will be buying a new car this year.
Is there even a production car that runs off nothing but batteries yet???? talking about put the cart in front of the horse
yes there are several. the one thing i dont like is that gas guzzlers already pay more in gas taxes, do we really need the to pay more by driving further then the "feel good" type cars ?
If you're car consumes more gas, therefor you buy more, of course you will pay more in gas tax. That seems pretty darn fair to me…
Hybrid batteries are great, here is the production
first they mine the minerals needed in Canada,
then ship then to Europe for processing,
then ship that to Asia to be made into batteries,
then shipped to whatever factory builds the car,
then they ship the cars to the final destination.
Using far more resources, energy and fossil fuels than they save during their short life,
Then the batteries need replaced………….
but hey thats ok they make you feel so good about yourself…………….
So does this mean motorcycles will get the first spots?
“Government is just trying to provide an incentive to going the direction that we should all be going anyway,” said City Council member Tom Podzimek.
Oh yes, since the government knows what is best for us, doesn't it? Sounds like socialism to me.
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One of the most absurd things I have read in along-long time. Just another reason to avoid the wasteland they call downtown.
[...] hybrid, alternative-fuel, or zero-emissions vehicle in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – you’ll soon get the privilege of parking in the most convenient spots in the city’s garages. One of the city’s engineers, [...]