I used to think downtown parking was the whole problem with small businesses

I ran a shop on Woodward for 3 years and always blamed the empty storefronts on parking, but then I saw a stat from the Downtown Detroit Partnership that said foot traffic actually increased 12% after they raised meter rates. Turns out people just stopped circling blocks and walked more, which meant more window shopping. Has anyone else seen this kind of counterintuitive data shake up their assumptions about what actually kills local business?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellyg141d ago

That stat surprises me too honestly... I always figured cheaper parking = more customers, but maybe we were all wrong about that. It makes sense though if people are actually getting out of their cars instead of hunting for a spot. I'm rethinking a lot of my old assumptions now.

reese_garcia1d ago

Higher meter rates just push customers to Amazon instead of dealing with downtown hassles.