Gotta love the people at the DDP, instead of working to build standardized parking rates, signs, and create a real parking infrastructure, with tax breaks for cooperation- they build a website.

The Downtown Dayton Partnership launched a Web site Thursday to help people find parking in the city.

The site, EasyParkDowntown.org, has an interactive map of downtown’s parking options and discounts for monthly parkers.

A chief complaint about visiting or working in downtown Dayton has been parking.

“We’ve heard the parking concerns of downtown businesses and visitors,” said Sandra Gudorf, president of the Downtown Dayton Partnership.

On average, it cost $85 a month to park there in 2008.

Starting next month, the city-owned Transportation Center Parking Garage — next to the convention center — will reduce rates for monthly parking to $35 on the upper floors, from $55.

Downtown-based CareSource, a health care management company, used to pay for about 250 spaces at the garage, said a parking official, but those employees now park at the garage across from the new CareSource building on Monument Street and Main Street.

via Web site created to ease downtown Dayon parking – Dayton Business Journal:.

Other cities like Cincinnati, have developed programs where three hours are $1 to encourage visitors to find spaces in every garage- and making on-street parking short term only. Also, with standardized signs and rates, it makes it easier for the new visitor to figure things out.

Of course, we could quickly double the number of on-street parking spaces by moving to end-in parking. People don’t even know how to parallel park anymore- it’s time for end-in asap.

As long as parking is free at strip centers and the malls, people will continue to shop there, even walking the equivalent of 2  or 3 city blocks without knowing it.