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Parking decision time on high-tech patrol

Is high-tech the answer to parking problems in Fredericksburg?

Date published: 3/25/2007

BY EMILY BATTLE

The two weeks that City Council members gave themselves to mull over spending $100,000 on high-tech parking enforcement equipment are almost up.

In that time, the equipment has gained some nicknames--"Star Wars" and "the robot" among them.

It has been studied by council members, some of whom will see it demonstrated on Tuesday.

And it has prompted varying reactions from people who spend their time and make their living downtown.

The system Fredericksburg is considering buying--called AutoChalk--is meant to improve the two part-time parking officers' efficiency at writing tickets.

Paired with stiffer fines for repeat offenders, this would in theory deter people from hogging downtown's two-hour parking spots.

But with a brand-new parking garage sitting largely empty much of the time, some merchants wonder what all the fuss is about.

"I grew up in Washington, D.C., and I've never even thought for a second that parking was a problem in downtown Fredericksburg," said Paul Cymrot, owner of Riverby Books on Caroline Street.

"You walk farther when you go to Wal-Mart."

To Cymrot, and to many others downtown, the idea of replacing parking officers on foot with a police SUV loaded with cameras and a computer doesn't jibe with the city's historic nature.

City Councilman Marvin Dixon said the attitude he has heard from others downtown is, "It's too much technology for too small a town."

Former City Councilman Joe Wilson, who is constructing a building on Caroline Street, said he doesn't think the device is "tourist-friendly," and if the city is going to look at surveillance technology to solve any one problem, it should invest in red-light cameras.

Even the Downtown Retail Marketing Inc. merchants group--which has asked the city repeatedly to beef up its parking enforcement capabilities--has come out against AutoChalk.

Amid all the fear of a robot replacing human beings on the street, City Manager Phillip Rodenberg said there's no element of the AutoChalk system that isn't already used by government to solve other problems.

The system consists of a car equipped with a laptop, digital cameras and GPS technology--all things that are often celebrated as innovations when introduced to an old government task.

Council members have gotten several e-mails from downtown business owner Kyle Snyder.

Here are city responses to some of the questions raised about AutoChalk. WILL PEOPLE WITH HANDICAPPED PLACARDS BE TICKETED? AutoChalk can't see these tags, but city officials have proposed having people register their tags with the police department so that information can be loaded into the AutoChalk database. That would alert a parking officer not to ticket these cars. WILL WE HAVE ANY TIME TO GET USED TO THIS? Yes. City officials have proposed a three-week "start period," during which only warnings will be mailed to violators. WILL PARKING OFFICERS DISAPPEAR FROM CITY STREETS? Officials say AutoChalk would make the parking officers more efficient, freeing up time for them to enforce other violations on foot, such as parking in fire lanes and blocking fire hydrants and driveways. WANT TO LEARN MORE? To read the city's four-page response to questions about AutoChalk, click on the City Beat blog.

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Date published: 3/25/2007

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