Post-Pandemic Parking
March 31, 2022
by John Ashburn, Parking Services Manager, City of Huntsville, Alabama
What parking changes did you make for COVID that are here to stay? What new parking challenges are you experiencing now that the world is emerging from the pandemic?
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw our world upended. Along with all the other disruptions in our lives, it brought significant change to the parking industry. Some of those changes were temporary and some have survived the pandemic. Also, the end of the pandemic has brought about some new challenges in parking.
One of the biggest impacts of COVID-19 was to the restaurant industry because of restrictions to indoor dining. To accommodate these restrictions, we converted some of our on-street parking to curbside pick-up and closed some blocks in the evening to allow the restaurants to set out tables in the street. With the easing of the pandemic, we have continued to close some blocks on certain nights and allow restaurants to do in-street dining as it is so popular. This looks like something that is here to stay for us and is something we never would have tried if not for COVID.
Another challenge we have had is event venues are trying to make up for lost time and revenue. After some initial hesitancy, we are finding people are wanting to go out again and live normal lives. The combination leads to a very full schedule with large crowds.
Our court system is also trying to make up for lost time. We have traditionally parked juries once a month. As they try to go through their backlog of cases, we have full juries that we park on a weekly basis. Between the hiring issues that everyone is experiencing and the busy schedules, we are stretched thin these days.
What have you experienced?
