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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Log shortage forces another round of layoffs at Rough & Ready ... House fire displaces west Medford family ... Wyden meets in Medford to discuss fight against opioid abuse ... Log shortage forces another round of layoffs at Rough & Ready ... House fire displaces west Medford family ... Wyden meets in Medford to discuss fight against opioid abuse ... OUR VIEW Our View: Solving the downtown parking puzzle Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Feb. 14, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Feb. 14, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News Despite the best efforts of Medford officials to find the right balance for downtown parking limits, the rules continue to annoy motorists and businesses alike. It may be impossible to find a compromise that satisfies everyone, but it's safe to say there is still room for improvement. Take the plight of a group of Rotarians who held a morning meeting at Limestone Coffee only to find $25 tickets on their cars when they emerged less than an hour and a half later. The meeting was supposed to last an hour, but ran over, as meetings often do. The same problem confronts anyone trying to have lunch in a downtown restaurant. It's not realistic to expect to be seated, order, wait for your food and eat in a relatively leisurely fashion and make it back to your car in time if you've parked in a one-hour spot. Changing the downtown on-street limit to two hours seems like an obvious solution, but merchants don't want that either, because they say Rogue Community College students use the spots to attend a class without patronizing their businesses. Businesses can purchase vouchers that reduce customers' parking fines to $5, and many do, but that's cumbersome, not to mention an expense for small-business owners already struggling to make a living. We have two suggestions as possible solutions, albeit only partial solutions: Adjust the parking limits at lunchtime. Limits could be lifted for an hour at mid-day — say, from noon to 1 p.m. From our admittedly quick review of the RCC class schedules there seem to be a limited number of noon start times. This would mostly help restaurants and their customers. Merchants could be given vouchers by the city that customers would place on their dashboard entitling them to extra time, which would avoid the hassle of requesting a voucher after having received a ticket. These vouchers would cost nothing — unlike the current post-ticket vouchers — and would be available only to customers to be used on the day they receive them. And an observation: Two-hour parking is available in downtown parking structures, conveniently situated very near Main Street. Motorists need to get over the sense that they are entitled to park directly in front of their destination and anything farther away is inconvenient. Maybe a few signs posted downtown directing people to the longer-limit parking structures would help. The city has an interest in encouraging people to spend time downtown and making parking less of a hassle is a big part of that. But the more people come, the harder it is to find parking. That's not entirely a problem: An empty downtown is not a healthy downtown. Solutions may take some out-of-the-box thinking and we suggest it's time to think outside of the one-hour, two-hour box. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Feb. 14, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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