While CARTA brings forward city legislation to boot chronic parking violators downtown, the transit authority is crafting a plan to push private parking operators to lower their prices.
The Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority primarily operates public transit service throughout the city and parts of Hamilton County. However, through its subsidiary, the Chattanooga Parking Authority, the agency also manages parking downtown through three garages, five lots and all on-street spots.
The transit authority is asking the Chattanooga City Council to approve an ordinance allowing the agency to boot repeat offenders after revealing there were over 64,000 outstanding parking citations totaling $4.1 million in delinquent fines.
“CARTA does not want to be in the enforcement business,” Charles Frazier, the authority’s CEO said in a phone interview Thursday. “This is not a revenue stream. What we really want is for people to just follow the rules and to stop subsidizing people who are not following the rules.”
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