If you’re planning to park in Hoboken today, you’d better make sure your eyeglass prescription is up to date so you can try to make sense of a bevy of new rules and rates being rolled out in an effort to ease parking congestion and aid local businesses.

Surely, it is a herculean task to try to balance the needs of residents, visitors, business owners and workers in a mile-square city with a burgeoning population, especially when through the decades new construction was allowed to get away with having too few on-site parking spots to match the number of units coming on line. (Getting residents of those buildings to then pay for whatever spots there are instead of taking their chances on the street is a further problem.)

Exorbitant monthly rates for local garages make it hard, if not impossible, for many residents to afford the “rent’’ for their car’s parking spot.

And well-intentioned bumpouts for pedestrian safety and things like rain gardens for environmental sustainability further exacerbate the crunch, albeit for good causes. The police evidence containers we wrote about last month should never have been parked in the street, though.

Officials of Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s administration are confident their new transportation initiatives will improve drivers’ parking experiences, and we hope they’re right.

But only time will tell.

The new initiative we like the most is ditching the fare for the four Hop shuttle bus routes, but we doubt it will have any effect on parking. It’s a move that will help residents and PATH, NJT and light rail riders -- folks who are already using their feet or public transportation -- get around the city. We don’t envision someone who currently drives into the city changing that habit, but maybe they’ll be encouraged to head to the west side and take the shuttle east. At best, the initiative may entice shoppers or diners who otherwise would have stayed, say, in Jersey City to take the PATH and then hop the Hop to a new destination.

Beyond that, the oddly named other initiatives are confusing, but hold some promise.

"Daily Debit Parking” offers $5-a-day spots for a limited number of Hoboken business employees in the three municipal garages and a surface lot at 13th and Jefferson streets. Why anyone who works in the city wouldn’t want to do this is baffling. Our biggest fear is that they’ll go from hogging street spots to hogging garage spots, pushing away out-of-towners who will now see “Lot Full’’ signs at the garages.

“Dynamic Pricing’’ means the rate for non-resident street spots will vary around the city and is intended to promote turnover. What driver doesn’t dream of seeing those brake lights and blinkers go on just a few feet up the block? If it’s successful, it won’t be a salve for visitors looking to spend the day in the city or those looking to park near the PATH for a trip to the Big Apple, but it might make it less aggravating for a good number of shoppers and diners.

A second prong to the “Dynamic Pricing’’ initiative will drop the first-hour rate at the municipal garages, which could be very effective, but, again, for people looking to run in and out, not people looking to spend a few hours in the city. Will a lower rate be enticing enough to make them spend the extra time parking in a garage rather than taking their chances double parking?

“Lot 3 Transient Parking’’ means the city is opening up about 30 parking spots in the uptown surface lot at 13th and Jefferson for hourly parking.

Lastly, “Lot 3 Reduced Monthly Parking Fees’’ pretty much tells it like it is, once you know what Lot 3 is. The monthly charge in the 13th and Jefferson lot will go from $195 to $175. Is that enough to get someone off the street? We doubt it, but it’s nice to give the folks who do park there a break.

The bulk of these initiatives target drivers on quick trips, and if they are effective at curbing double parking, they will be worth it.

The cynic in us sees the free Hop and the slightly reduced monthly rate at the uptown lot as gifts to potential voters in a year when six of the nine council seats are up for grabs. As long as the bus fare isn’t reinstated and the lot rate jacked up after all the results are in, we won’t protest.

What’s most important is that the city monitor the effects of these changes, be open to the opinions of residents, business owners and visitors, and rethink the initiatives as needed.

We’d also recommend better signage to get drivers to the garages, better advertising of restaurants that validate parking and, perhaps most important, a regular review of road and other construction projects’ effects on parking spaces to quickly get those spots open again.

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