Breakfast links: Park or don't drive

by David Alpert • May 5, 2009 8:56 am

Charlottesville garage. Photo by Waldo Jaquith.

Charlottesville considers meters: As employees shuffle their cars around every two hours to avoid tickets, Charlottesville, VA is debating installing on-street meters. Meanwhile, municipal parking garages go empty. Most city officials want to keep parking free to help downtown businesses, but employees are taking up spaces. (Daily Progress, Michael P)

NCPC unhappy with no new parking at Navy Yard?: JDLand notices that NCPC's reaction to a planned expansion and modernization of building W-200 at the Navy Yard includes what looks like a suggestion for more parking. According to NCPC, the project will add room for 135 more workers, but add no new parking. NCPC staff suggest the Navy Yard "demonstrate how the WNY parking ratio meets NCPC's Comprehensive Plan goals," but the federal Comprehensive Plan mainly discusses limiting parking, not expanding it, though it does also recommend a ratio of one space per five employees.

Talking parking in Alexandria: Alexandria has created a parking questionnaire. If you park in Alexandria, let the city know what you think about their parking policies.

Sweeper cam tickets to fund housing: Jim Graham has dedicated street sweeper camera ticket revenues to housing programs, the same ones that the Council originally planned to fund with the parking meter rate increase. (Beyond Bread)

BRAC all fraked: The Maryland State Highway Administration is "ignoring its own recently adopted guidelines" by designing road and intesection widenings for cars only and neglecting bicycle commuting around the National Naval Medical Center (soon to be the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center) in Bethesda. In some cases, they're taking up the entire right-of-way of a road with car lanes, making it difficult to add the bicycle facilities that are already on the county's master plan. (TheWashCycle)

NYC imagines 49,000 shared bicycles: New York has an ambitious "business plan" to put 49,000 bike sharing bicycles across the city. They expect to fund the first phase, 10,500 bicycles in Manhattan below 72nd Street and the densest parts of Brooklyn, just through memberships, not requiring an advertising franchise agreement. Partners would fund later phases covering the remaining walkable neighborhoods in the city. (CoolTown Studios) ... CNN looks at the successes and obstacles of other systems around the world. (TheWashCycle)

DCCA elects slate, President too close to call: Last night, Dupont Circle Citizens' Asssociation members elected almost all of the candidates nominated by the Nominating Committee, and whom I recommended. The race for President between Ron Clayton and Robin Diener, however, ended in a 51-51 tie, with eight provisional ballots to potentially decide the race. (Friends of Jack)

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12 comments Share	— tags: affordable housing, Alexandria, Bethesda, bike lanes, bike sharing, BRAC, budget, Charlottesville, DC, Dupont Circle, free parking, Jim Graham, links, Maryland, meter rates, NCPC, Near Southeast, New York, parking, parking minimums, parking tickets, politics, SHA, Virginia

Streetcars getting closer in Alexandria (Mar 2, 2009)
Free parking near the Navy Yard given away to commuters (Sep 17, 2008)
A busy day for NCPC (Jul 10, 2008)
The Yards waterfront park squeezes bikes to the edge (Feb 4, 2008)
A backbone for people and bicycles (Nov 22, 2005)

Comments

Added into me Alexandria parking questionnaire:

One further remark. It is an waste of space and money to give the mayor council members exclusive spots in the parking garage under the square. Furthermore, it is vane and arrogant to put those spots next to the entrance of the garage. It makes it look like council members are better than regular people. I would like to remind them that they are the people's *servants*. At least these spots should be open to the public after hours. Last, it is inconsistent that council members get free convenient parking while regular citizens are encouraged to use metro and DASH buses.

by Jasper on May 5, 2009 9:23 am

Jasper, right on! There should be free and convenient parking for all. Parking, i.e., giving free access to all, including those in personal vehicles, ... and not just to those on foot or otherwise, is only fair.

by Lance on May 5, 2009 9:56 am

Lance- except that building an underground parking space costs tens of thousands of dollars to build, and significant maintenance costs as well. Pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure is much, much cheaper. So it makes sense to charge for parking so that pedestrians are not overly subsidizing drivers.

by RichardatCourthouse on May 5, 2009 10:04 am

Lance, I can see your argument for free underground car storage for all. The only problem is that those costs get passed on somewhere. As Richard noted, each underground space costs tens of thousands of dollars. That's not even including the other costs related to the induced traffic from the existence of the parking space. I can see why you would be in favor of underground parking for free. However, when you look at the other side of the ledger, it stops being such a good deal.

by Cavan on May 5, 2009 10:16 am

Talking parking in Alexandria: Alexandria has created a parking questionnaire. If you park in Alexandria, let the city know what you think about their parking policies.

Why should only people who park get a say? I think pedestrians and individuals who use other forms of transporation--who are impacted by parking, drivers, and traffic congestion--should also fill out the form and make their voices heard.

by Jack Jacobson on May 5, 2009 10:17 am

OT, but... can anyone tell me why they are still watering Chevy Chase Circle given the 3+ inches of rain we've had in the last month?

by Nate on May 5, 2009 10:53 am

They should also be giving out free breakfasts!

by Lance on May 5, 2009 10:54 am

Now that the DC Council has been shamed into selling their luxury box seats at Nationals Park for community causes, why not the prime parking spots they have at the District building?

Oh wait, that would mean Council members would have to personally experience DC mass transit and we can't have that.

by Tom Coumaris on May 5, 2009 11:04 am

@ Lance: I was more thinking that it should be paid for everybody. Or perhaps we could go to performance rates. The fuller the garage is upon entry, the higher the rate.

In general, I would like to force board members to use the products of the institution they are one. WMATA board members should use metro, and have their driver's license suspended. AIG board members should be forced to run their own insurance through AIG. Coke folks should not be allowed to drink Pepsi. Only by forcing administrators to use their own products, you can make them customers themselves, and make them care. The problem is that they create exceptions for themselves, .

by Jasper on May 5, 2009 11:05 am

I was more thinking that it should be paid for everybody.

That is: Everybody should pay for their parking.

by Jasper on May 5, 2009 11:07 am

tens of thousands of dollars to build

No, Richard, millions. Digging down costs a hell of a lot of money.

by цarьchitect on May 5, 2009 1:21 pm

It's incorrect to say that "municipal parking garages go empty" in Charlottesville as you wrote here, David. That's not the case, and that's also not what was reported in the Daily Progress. We have two public parking garages, one larger than the other. The smaller (Market St.) is quite often full, and that's been the case for years. The larger (Water St.) has only been entirely filled up on very rare occasions, but is quite often half to three-quarters full. That's not "empty," but very nearly the opposite.

by Waldo Jaquith on May 5, 2009 3:30 pm