News

Dec 02, 2023

Report: Royal Oak has a ‘very high’ parking violation rate

A new parking study of Royal Oak’s downtown raises questions about the high rate

A new parking study of Royal Oak's downtown raises questions about the high rate of violations issued and how to resolve them.

One key difference between the last parking study done in 2018 and the current one is that in 2021 Royal Oak contracted with Municipal Parking Services (MPS) to install nearly 800 on-street parking meters that have cameras, which take photos of license plates and send violators tickets by mail.

The new meters, which MPS owns, started issuing tickets in December 2021.

There have been glitches with the system. Early on, motorists got thousands of parking tickets that had to be dismissed by the court. The parking contractor has responded to complaints from the city, but there are still problems that crop up.

Royal Oak's Downtown Development Authority board contracted for the new study with parking consultants Rich & Associates, which will give a presentation on the report to the DDA at 4 p.m. Wednesday in a public meeting at City Hall.

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Royal Oak's City Commission will also have a presentation as early as its meeting next Monday.

Averaging out seven months of parking violations, the study found 43 percent of motorists who use the new on-street meters end up getting a violation either because they failed to pay within the first 5-minute grace period or stayed beyond the two-hour time limit.

"This is still very high," the report states. "In any parking system, a high violation rate would very likely disenfranchise many downtown patrons."

City officials and the DDA have raised the question of whether to extend the 5-minute grace period to 15 minutes and extend maximum time at a meter to three hours.

An average of 32,500 parking tickets are issued monthly. More than three-quarters of those are for violations of the 5-minute period to pay. The study said 9 percent of violators exceed the two-hour limit.

All those parking tickets, at $20 each, are projected to generate about $3.5 million a year, which is split 50-50 with MPS.

The study notes any one of the high number of people getting tickets – either because of too restrictive rules or policies and meter operations they don't understand – "is very likely to tell others of their negative experience and may ultimately limit their future (downtown) visits."

The new system has raised the ire of many residents, users and business owners , especially on Washington Avenue. City officials have also had sharp exchanges with MPS representatives since the new parking system became operational.

City Manager Paul Brake said the study includes an inventory of all on- and off-street parking in 32 blocks of the downtown.

"The City Commission will look closely at the recommendations from the study and, perhaps, make additional changes based on the feedback they have received," Brake said.

Royal Oak's parking system has the capacity to meet peak needs, he added. DDA and city officials are also looking for recommendations from Rich & Associates on such things as fee schedules, the reverse-angle parking on Washington, and whether to install electric vehicle charging stations.

City Commissioner Brandon Kolo initially voted against the city contracting with MPS, but said now that the system is in place he wants to see it work as well as it can for downtown visitors.

The amount of tickets is down from 60 percent of users in the beginning, he added.

"Software issues that affected the system (early on) have been resolved," Kolo said. "But that left the parking system with a bad reputation that needs to be corrected."

He hopes changes can be made to make the system more friendly.

Royal Oak's contract with MPS will last another four years. The parking company also has deals with Flint and Hamtramck in Michigan, and about 30 other communities nationally.

Kolo said he favors increasing the maximum meter time for a single user to three hours.

In 2018 peak nighttime use of parking spots on Saturdays was 79 percent in the downtown area. In 2022, use of parking spots during that peak time was 52 percent, a significant drop.

Kolo, however, noted that after 2018 the city expanded the parking deck on Center Street and added a new seven-level park deck on 11 Mile Road near Main Street.

"We have 784 more spaces than we did in 2018," he said.

The City Commission will listen to feedback from the DDA on the parking issues under consideration.

"The DDA is the voice of the business community and I look forward to how we can improve this (parking) system," Kolo said.

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