I thought I would share with you the metered street parking arrangement I witnessed on a recent trip to Barcelona, Spain, due to street parking being an ongoing issue of concern in both the West Loop and South Loop neighborhoods.

In many of Barcelona’s dense, mixed-use, inner-city neighborhoods, the streets are both metered and zoned to residential permits, and everyone uses the parking paybox. Residents, displaying a zone permit on their car, can print a receipt paying for parking for an entire week (at a low daily rate) while visitors pay for their parking as at any other metered parking location.

This arrangement is beneficial for several reasons. By having residents pay a low daily fee at least once per week, there is some measure of vehicle turnover ensured (i.e. people don’t use the public streets for unattended long term car storage). However the low fee keeps parking affordable and nearby for residents. This also ensures maximum utilization of all available street space — this in contrast to the current arrangement, where permit-only zones may go underutilized for much of the day while scarce metered and guest parking is taken up immediately.

By creating perhaps two or three parking zones in each of the West and South Loops, with every street metered (albeit with residents paying the dramatically reduced rate and parking paid daily, rather than hourly), existing resources could be better utilized and more parking available when visitors need it during the day and when residents need it in the afternoon and evening.