With the parking rates potentially increasing by $1 an hour, the City of Hoboken is offering a meter rate discount in the business district for residents with a parking permit.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The city will be partnering with ParkMobile to offer current residents with residential parking permits the ability to park in metered zones in business districts for a 50 percent discount, which is equivalent to $1.50/hr., if the current ordinance is approved by the city council.
This will essentially allow current and future resident permit holders the ability to pay less than the existing $0.50/15-minute ($2/hour) rate in business districts. According to meter transaction data, approximately 90 percent of those parked within business districts are non-Hoboken permit holders.
Additionally, businesses will be provided with a ParkMobile promo code to provide customers or employees with a 50 percent discount for a select number of transactions per month.
The discount employee parking program for Hoboken businesses will continue to offer off-street parking of $5 for 12 hours in Garages B (28 2nd Street), D (215 Hudson Street), and Midtown (371 4th Street) at a rate that is significantly cheaper than on-street parking.
Meter rates in permit parking zones in residential areas (the side of the street with the white sign) are also proposed to be adjusted to $0.50 per 15 minutes, with the goal of freeing up parking spots for residential parking permit holders and encouraging visitors to utilize the Virtual Visitor Parking Permit (VVP) system.
The pricing for the VVP remains unchanged and can be purchased for 4-, 8- or 24-hour time periods for fees up $4, $5, or $6, respectively, which corresponds to $1 and hour, $0.63 per hour, and $0.25 per hour respectively.
Residents with valid Resident On-Street Parking Permits will continue to be exempt from paying metered parking fees in permit zones.
The new parking meter rates of $0.75 per 15 minutes in business districts are being proposed and would go into effect next year if approved by the city council.
The time limit for on-street parking in business districts is also proposed to increase from two hours to four hours to provide greater flexibility to visitors.
The proposed rate adjustment aims to achieve a best practice of 85 percent occupancy rates in business districts, corresponding to one-to-two parking space availability on each block.
If passed, Hoboken’s metered parking rates will continue to remain in-line with rates in other cities resembling Hoboken’s dense urban context and high on-street parking demand, including business districts in central New Brunswick, the Back Bay section of Boston, West Village in New York City, and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.
The proposed meter fee amendments are part of a series of strategies to improve local parking access and convenience, including the newly launched reservations program, promo code discounts with ParkMobile, the online merchant validation program, as well as real-time parking availability updates at municipal garages.
Also on the agenda for consideration by the Hoboken City Council is an ordinance to increase fines for double parking in bike lanes in business districts from $100 to $150.
The goal of the ordinance is to reduce double parking in bike lanes as part of their Vision Zero effort to have zero traffic-related fatalities by 2030.
