DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Dauphin County is preparing to spend $146,000 to keep parking free in Harrisburg after 5 p.m., but county leaders say they want data from downtown businesses to show whether the program is actually helping.
The Dauphin County commissioners approved the payment for another year of free parking after 5 p.m. Commissioner Justin Douglas said the county has struggled in previous years to collect metrics to support that the free-parking program is beneficial.
Douglas said the goal is not to create new systems, but to use existing tools to better understand how the parking is being used. “It’s not expanding upon abilities that already exist,” he said “it’s utilizing what already exists, the platforms that are exist and then being able to acquire some data for like how long are these people parking.”…