Stimulating the Economy with parking meters?!

I have lived in Denver for about two years now. After starting this school year heading downtown for classes, I have used public transportation, carpools and my own car. The biggest contributor to the diminishing balance in my checking account has been parking.

I have over 6 hours of class in the afternoon and evenings Monday through Friday. I usually park in one of the campus garages. I usually pay $7.60 to $8.00 for the day depending on when I get my car out of the garage. I have been contemplating parking at a meter but the limit is two hours and I wouldn't always have time to move my car or re-feed the meters.

A friend of mine parks at the meter all of the time because she only has to park for two to three hours tops.

In the parking garage, I pay more money to park all day with no threat of tickets. She parks at the meter to spend less and hope she doesn't run out of time and get a ticket.

Let's take a second to think about the parking meters. The majority of meters are now cash or credit. You can add change or swipe your card to add time. If someone has left time on the meter, you can only pay up to 2 hours of time. If not, you could pay some extra time over 2 hours within reason. When we pay, we sometimes see that credit cards allow only 2 hours and change allows a few minutes over.

Back to the economic stimulation... Wouldn't it be prudent to program the meters to allow you to park as long as you want given you swiped your card?? It would just continuously charge you to park there, like at a garage. The way I see it, it would be an incentive to be able to park for more time with your credit card instead of worrying about making it back to your car and getting a ticket. I would be more inclined to spend more time downtown shopping and eating if I knew I had more time and little threat of getting a fine for not being back at the meter in time. Let's not forget the money I would spend on gas and car maintenance for driving more when going downtown versus taking the city bus.

Simple conveniences like this won't reset our economy, but they do encourage local spending.

Does anyone else have thoughts on this or other minor inconveniences that would make you more inclined to stimulate the economy?