The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has made modifications to neighborhood parking rates that will be implemented over the next two months.

The new rates will decrease the hourly rate for parking in downtown Ballard and the Ballard Locks by $0.50, changing it to $1.50 per hour.

The new rates were unveiled earlier this month but since then SDOT has taken a critical second look at the methodology for setting rates. The new rates better align with policy direction provided during the 2011 budget process.

In adopting the 2011 budget, the Seattle City Council directed SDOT to set rates to achieve an average of one or two available spaces per block in each neighborhood.

Based on a thorough review of the City’s rate-setting approach, rates for 2011 will go up in four neighborhoods, down in 11 neighborhoods and will stay the same in seven others as compared to 2010 rates. 73 percent of paid spaces will either be lowered or see no change at all.

“We’ve taken a critical second look at our data and methodology for setting parking rates,” said Charles Bookman, SDOT’s director of Traffic Management.

“These modifications are a reflection of the mayor’s and City Council’s commitment to data-driven policies to make it more likely for motorists to find an open spot on the street.”

Starting in early February, the new rates will be rolled out over the course of two months on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. Later this spring and summer, after the implementation, SDOT will collect parking data to determine how the new rates are altering parking behavior in each Seattle paid-parking neighborhood.

The plan to extend paid parking hours for the nine neighborhoods with active nightlife and high evening parking demand, announced on January 14, remains unchanged.