Curbing Anxious Diners, Shoppers : Santa Monica officials hope that new parking system will help alleviate ‘meter anxiety.’

Santa Monica officials are moving to alleviate “meter anxiety” among visitors who park in the city’s six public parking garages.

Convinced by merchants that shoppers and other visitors are cutting their visits--and their spending--short for fear that their meters will expire, the city has been ripping out the meters and replacing them with parking attendants. The last garage will be renovated by Thursday.

Under the new system, the first two hours of parking are free before 6 p.m. After that, each half-hour costs 60 cents up to a $7 maximum. After 6 p.m., the parking fee is a flat $2.

Two hours of free parking keeps Santa Monica on par with other local shopping areas--Beverly Hills, for example--that offer free parking incentives.

The parking attendants who operate the booths help create a safer atmosphere in the garages, officials said. And, perhaps most important, customers are likely to spend more money on local businesses.

“People who were sitting at the bar and were ready for another cocktail used to look at their watches and say, ‘Uh-oh, my meter’s running out,’ ” said Tony Palermo, co-owner of Teasers on the Third Street Promenade. “Then they would fly out of here.”

Now the city is trying to make life more convenient for motorists.

For example, people can avoid sitting in line at the garages to pay their parking tolls. In several spots along the popular Third Street Promenade, attendants collect money and validate parking tickets. People who use this service are allowed a grace period to walk back to their cars and drive out, using an express lane.

Eventually, automated kiosks, like automated teller machines, will replace the attendants who collect the money on the Promenade. Just slip the ticket into a slot and feed the amount owed into the machine, said Jim Alexander, vice president and regional manager of Ampco System Parking.

Ampco also plans to offer prepaid debit cards: Simply punch a card at the entrances and exits of the garages, and the amount due will automatically be subtracted. And $55 monthly parking passes are already available.

While Santa Monica’s new parking system--especially the two hours free--may be popular with the public, city officials don’t want to lose money on it. They figure that the ease of parking in Santa Monica will attract more shoppers, diners and moviegoers, and generate higher sales tax receipts for the city.

That revenue, plus what the city collects in higher daily parking rates, is expected to offset any losses that will result from the two hours of free parking. Parking revenue runs close to $2 million.

Beverly Hills, which has offered two hours of free parking since the mid-1980s, lost about $200,000 in its parking fund last year--most of that due to free parking, said Don Oblander, Beverly Hills’ director of finance administration.

One problem is that many people scramble to finish their business in two hours so they don’t have to pay, Oblander said. And people who plan to stay longer than two hours often simply move their cars from one public garage to another, he said.

Santa Monica officials and merchants hope that a plan to expand and revitalize a portion of Santa Monica that is bounded by Second and Fourth streets, Wilshire Boulevard and Broadway will draw more people to the area to patronize businesses. The Santa Monica City Council may vote on the Bayside District plan Tuesday.

The plan, in part, would draw more retail stores and create new sources of entertainment, including virtual reality game facilities.

Convenient parking goes hand in hand with such an ambitious plan, merchants say.

“What do I want?” asked Palermo. “I just want happy customers that keep coming back to Santa Monica.”