Do you 'scooter' to job? Park free at city garage

To encourage fuel saving and ease traffic congestion, city offers scooter slots at Prince Street Parking Garage.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray quietly rolled his little black motor scooter into a spot in the city's Prince Street Parking Garage on Wednesday, removed his helmet and was on his way to the office.
Well, almost. First, Gray had to stop and have his photo taken.
The mayor is hoping that other people will follow his example and ride scooters to work in the city.
As part of his strategic plan to encourage alternative forms of transportation, the mayor and the Lancaster Parking Authority quietly unveiled 15 free parking spaces dedicated to scooters in the downtown parking garage.
The small spaces are on two sides of the garage's curving exit ramp. The area had not previously been used.
Gray is promoting the use of scooters as a means of saving fuel, reducing air pollution and traffic congestion and easing tight parking.
"It's the future, and we see more and more scooters in town," said Gray. "I see no negatives and all positives."
Along with scooters, which can get more than 100 miles per gallon of fuel, the city is also encouraging the use of motorcycles and bicycles.
Tom Matthews, the Parking Authority's executive director, said the Prince Street garage is being used for a pilot program.
"We'll see how they're used," Matthews said of the scooter parking spaces. "If they're not used heavily, we'll add motorcycles."
If they are used, the Parking Authority will consider adding scooter spaces to its three other garages. It may also add designated scooter and bicycle parking areas to the new garage now planned for the 100 block of East King Street, he said.
It will not be as easy to add the scooter parking to the King Street, Duke Street and Water Street garages, he said, as there is not as much "dead space" going unused.