A new system designed to improve parking in Shepherdstown, W.Va. called Park Mobile has recently been installed in parking meters throughout the town.
While people will still be able to pay for their parking the old fashioned way, by putting coins in a meter, this new method comes in the form of a smartphone application and will allow drivers to avoid having to constantly feed the meter or fear being ticketed by the town police.
It is this simple. Drivers just need to download the free Park Mobile app on their smartphone, enter their parking spot and vehicle information, and pay for the parking online. It’s quicker and easier than finding coins and running back and forth to a parking meter. In my opinion, it is about time Shepherdstown has done something, anything, to improve parking throughout the city limits.
I became aware of this new initiative when I walked out of the radio station after completing my show, The Rush Hour Sports Zone, and came across Nate Stewart, a news reporter for WHAG Your 4 State news, filing a news report on Park Mobile Coming to Shepherdstown.
I jokingly remarked as I passed by, “Hey, you came to interview me! I didn’t know I was that famous.”
Stewart smiled and asked, “Well, would you like to be interviewed?”
I asked what I would be interviewed on and he began to describe, which I just did in the previous lines, the new Park Mobile system and how it could benefit the town’s parking crisis. I agreed to give my opinion in front of the camera and to my surprise, my remarks about the parking situation here in Shepherdstown made it into the beginning of Stewart’s 5 p.m. news report, which aired May 9th on WHAG news.
I stated to Stewart, “It’s so congested on a normal school day. I mean sometimes you’re better off walking.” I felt I was speaking for many students, commuters and other visitors to Shepherdstown who struggle in finding parking spots and constantly feeding the meters for their vehicles.
“I have to park blocks away if I’m painting downtown because I can’t feed the meters all the time,” Denny Clarke, a local artist also said in the WHAG news report. “I can’t always find a meter anyway.”
I have resided in Shepherdstown for the past several years and during that time I have seen little to be done to make parking within the city limits a little easier. It is a problem that needs much more attention from the town and its leaders. I fear that the lack of parking and problems related to parking have negatively impacted the town’s economy and may have led some visitors to decide against visiting Shepherdstown and its businesses.
For example, there may be someone who spots a store on German Street that peaks their interest while driving through town. However, traffic and congestion fills the streets and there is not a parking spot to be found. Instead of circling through side streets and starting the time-consuming task of searching for a parking spot in town, one may become discouraged and decide against visiting that store that caught their eye.
On the other hand, a visitor to the town may be able to find a parking spot but upon returning to their car they may find that they have been slapped with a parking ticket for not paying the parking meter in time. This actually occurs quite often and it unfortunately leaves a sour taste in the mouths of visitors to Shepherdstown who may second guess returning in fear they will just be cited with another ticket.
Obviously, Park Mobile will do little to increase the amount of available parking around town but it surely can make parking in Shepherdstown easier and maybe, stress free.
There is no simple solution to this problem. Space to build more parking in Shepherdstown proper is almost non-existent. It is time that the town begin looking at constructing a parking garage on the outskirts, such as the one to be built on Shepherd’s campus, or simply more spaces so that residents and visitors can have a pleasant experience and the town’s economy and reputation can continue to grow and improve.
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