Monday January 4th is my son’s birthday (happy birthday son). It’s also the first day of parking meter rate hikes. Parking your car on street in the central business district (the area bounded by Lake Michigan to the East, Wacker Drive to the North and West, and Congress Parkway to the South) will cost you $4.25 an hour. I’ll leave the moaning commentary about the City contract that got us into this mess to others; this post is about the bottom line costs car commuters will face come Monday morning.

So, let’s say you are a commuter coming into the Loop for work every day by car. If you can park before 7 AM several garages offer all day parking for $20. After 7 AM the going rate seems to be $27 dollars. I found one garage at 120 N. LaSalle offering an Early Bird Special of only $14 dollars if you are in by 9:30 with a minimum stay of six hours. If you are willing to park west of the river all day parking can be had for as little as $10 but miss the early bird specials and you will be paying $30 – $36 to park all day in a garage.

Why the cost analysis of garage parking if this article is about the parking meter rate hike? Simple, what I use to think was highway robbery to park in a garage is now relatively affordable compared to meter parking. By the time you pay for street parking and blow your lunch hour moving your car and/or feeding the meter, the garages actually become the more practical choice. Really though, why drive in at all? Let’s say you are a commuter from la la land Oak Park coming into the loop for work, court or etc. The CTA and Metra offer reliable service for about $5 round trip.

I remember reading somewhere about a plan to make driving into the central business district so expensive that the cost would become a new and dramatically effective form of traffic control. I remember thinking the author of the plan was nuts. Apparently somebody at city hall didn’t. For more information about the new parking fees, meters or etc. you can call 877-242-7901 or 312-744-PARK or visit www.chicagometers.com.