Damned Lies, Statistics and Parking Shortages
THIS PIECE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON RATIONAL URBANISM, THE BLOG OF ONE OF OUR MEMBERS, STEVEN SHULTIS. IT IS REPRINTED HERE WITH HIS PERMISSION. RECENTLY, WE FEATURED ANOTHER PIECE FROM A MEMBER DISCUSSING PARKING THAT DREW QUITE A BIT OF INTEREST. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHECKING OUT STEVEN'S APPEARANCE ON THE PODCAST EARLIER THIS YEAR AS WELL.
On the 5:30 edition of Western Mass News a story ran in which it was claimed that a 30% drop in a local tavern’s business was due to a dearth of “after 5 parking”. I ran out of the house and took these pictures…all within a one block radius of the establishment, all taken before 6 pm. To start, the distance from my house to McCaffrey’s is .3 miles, all of these spaces are much less than half that distance or, in other words, fewer than 2 minutes away.
Could the belief that there isn’t enough parking be hurting business? Maybe. Is there a problem with “after 5” parking near McCaffrey’s? Not tonight, and I’ll wager not tomorrow night either. Stand by for more exciting pictures of empty parking spaces closer to a barstool in McCaffrey’s than most spaces in the Hall of Fame parking lot are to a barstool at UNO’s, or Plan B, or J Quincy’s!