Haddonfield Today 138_2023Dec01_Parking

#138 • DECEMBER 1 TO 8, 2023
The Last Word
haddonfield.today | 31
A classic case of
unintended consequences
By David Hunter, publisher
The Law of Unintended Consequences holds that actions of people – and especially
of government – always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.
Recent (and not-so-recent) changes to Haddonfield’s tried-and-true parking meter
scheme have had consequences that the designers of the new scheme clearly did not
intend or anticipate.
SCENARIO – A resident needs to go to the Borough Hall to have some documents
notarized, a task that typically takes 15 minutes or so. She snags a prime parking
spot on Kings Hwy, right in front of the Borough Hall. She has not previously used the
parking app, and doesn’t want to take the time to register now, largely because she’s
eight months pregnant and has her rambunctious three-year old son with her. She
looks for a kiosk so she can use quarters to pay to park. She sees one, directly across
the street from the Borough Hall. (It’s the only kiosk on the 200 block of Kings Hwy E
between Haddon Ave and Grove/Potter.)
QUESTION – What should she do? (What would you do?)
1. Walk to the nearest cross-walk (at Haddon Ave) and cross the street; walk to the
kiosk and pay; walk back to the crosswalk at Haddon Ave and cross the street; walk
back to the Borough Hall – a journey that will take about ten minutes?
2. Grab her son by the hand and jay-walk across the street to the kiosk – and back?
3. Go into the Borough Hall without paying and risk getting a $24 ticket?
QUESTION – How is the new parking scheme better than the old parking scheme
(with pay-on-the-spot meters right in front of the Borough Hall)?
SCENARIO – When Haddonfield still had parking meters, a disabled driver in a
car with Accessible license plates was able to park in a metered space and pay for
the maximum time available (two or three hours, depending on location) – just like
everyone else. However, upon finding that more time away from the vehicle was
needed, the disabled driver did not have to return to the meter to pay for more time.
Courtesy of a state-wide regulation, the additional time was provided for free.
QUESTION – What’s the scenario now, under the new parking scheme? The meters
with time limits have been removed. Now, drivers can park from 9am to 8pm in most
locations. To take advantage of the courtesy regulation, the driver of a vehicle with
Accessible plates must pay for the maximum amount of time available at the space
being occupied. Under the new scheme, that maximum could be until 8pm – in which
case, there’s no such thing as free time at the end of the paid period, and therefore no
potential benefit for disabled drivers.
QUESTION – How is the new parking scheme better than the old parking scheme
(under which disabled drivers got extra parking time for free)?
SCENARIO – Owners and employees of businesses on Kings Hwy and Haddon Ave
used to park all day, economically, in the Snowden lot behind the Borough Hall. That
lot (with 90 spaces) was closed recently to facilitate the construction of an affordable
housing complex. Business owners and employees are now parking – all day – right
in front of their premises on Kings Hwy and Haddon Ave, depriving shoppers of those
spaces. And in front of the Post Office, from 9am to 4pm. And in the Acme lot, for free.
QUESTION – How is the new parking scheme better than the old parking scheme
(under which those needing long-term parking could park remotely and
economically)?
The French economic journalist Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) nailed it, with respect
to unintended consequences: There is only one difference between a bad economist and
a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist
takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.
It appears that the same can sometimes be said of municipal officials.