Downtown Columbus parking is not an easy issue to solve

As downtown has changed —and changed dramatically over the last decade — one thing has not changed. We still want a parking space directly in front of the business or restaurant we are visiting.

I, like many of you, am guilty as charged.

If I am going to the bike shop, I want to park in front of the bike shop — and I don’t want to pay for it. It’s human nature.

The Columbus Council took action on Tuesday they hope alters the parking patterns in downtown as storefront spaces become harder and harder to find. They took the $2 daily and event fee off the RiverCenter for Performing Arts parking deck in the 900 block of Broadway. That is the largest deck downtown with 685 spaces.

Will it work? Will people park in the deck and walk a few blocks to the north to the restaurants and shops? Will downtown workers park in the deck instead of gobbling up on-street parking?

These are million-dollar questions that Uptown Columbus Inc. President Richard Bishop and city officials want answered.

But the real question is why have folks in Columbus been so resistant to parking in decks?

I turned to Facebook for the answer —aren’t all the answers on Facebook these days? — and friend Gabe Denes, a local psychologist, was kind enough to respond.

“The clock’s running,” Gabe responded before offering an analysis.

I am willing to pay for professional advice, so I will buy Gabe lunch downtown — if he can find a parking space.

“Our social psychology dictates fast and instantaneous,” he posted. “I would rather ride or walk to midtown workplace, but cars rule. We are hard-wired for car and instantaneous now. Just think about how we get upset when our cell phones that communicate with satellites on towers or in outer space are ‘too slow.’”

He also offered an additional insight: “Parking garage also might equal isolated or equal fear.”

Another friend, who is not a psychologist, but instead a journalist in Kentucky who worked here long before downtown changed for the better, offered an interesting take.

“I really think it boils down to a subconscious fairness issue,” Jared Peck posted. “The parking lot offers some people a closer spot. I deserve a closer spot too. Why would I park all the way out here if other people can park at the door? It’s not laziness, it’s just the perception that we’re a sucker by parking farther away.”

There may be something to that.

But there is something else — just ask Bishop.

“If you ride around long enough, you are probably going to find a space within 1,500 feet of where you are going,” he said. “But as we continue to grow, that is not going to happen as much.”

Bingo.

But as city and Uptown Columbus folks work to market the parking possibilities, they might want to talk to folks other than urban planners.

This is not a simple problem or it would have been fixed as soon as the garages were built.

Good luck, guys.

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Downtown Columbus parking is not an easy issue to solve."