I flew to Lexington, Ky., last Tuesday.
Despite the holiday rush, I found convenient economy parking for $8 a day at Savannah/Hilton Head International, sailed through security and was at the gate less than 35 minutes after leaving my Thomas Square home.
My return trip through Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport was just as easy.
I’m told that I can get cheaper flights out of Jacksonville, but I never see prices to my destinations that are even remotely worth the extra time and hassle.
Many others feel differently.
The number of passengers at the Savannah airport has been up in recent months compared to 2011, but total enplanements and deplanements are still about 20 percent off the pre-recession peak.
Our competitors in the Southeast have generally fared better.
We have to assume that air travel will pick up as the economy does, but there’s no room for complacency. Airport officials seem to be working hard to add a low-cost carrier.
In the meantime, I hope enough of us continue to appreciate the ease of Savannah/Hilton Head International to prevent cutbacks by existing carriers. The airport’s convenience is a big plus for quality of life in a city of this size.
A note about weekend parking
On Sunday afternoon, I watched four snappily dressed young women get out of their car in a prime parking space on Barnard Street near City Market.
One of them started putting coins in the meter.
I put a stop to that, as I do pretty routinely on weekends.
I pointed out the barely legible text saying that meters are only enforced Monday through Friday.
“So we can stay longer than an hour?” one of them asked.
Sure enough, the time limit was a measly one hour.
So not only were they planning to pay for parking, but they were also prepared to shop for just 60 minutes before returning to the car.
This is all about money.
Yes, the city can certainly use the added revenue from meters that aren’t being monitored, but out-of-the-loop consumers are wasting cash they’d likely spend elsewhere.
And because of the arbitrary time limits, shoppers are spending less time and money downtown than they would otherwise.
Now, maybe in some crowded portions of downtown, the faster turnover of spaces even on the weekend benefits merchants.
But there are also some pretty quiet areas where shopping times are tightly restricted by meters, like the stretch of Barnard Street near the Downtown Design District.
With overly restrictive time limits, a rate increase during the recession and the removal of perfectly good spaces, we’ve simply made it too hard to park on many downtown streets. Merchants are paying the biggest price.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net and http://www.billdawers.com. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.