The parking front of the commuter “war”

Ryan Avent points out that on the same weekend the Post ran the awful Weiss article calling DC’s pro-pedestrian policies a “war on commuters,” the Post also reported that Tysons planners and developers plan less parking. Funny, I wonder why Weiss didn’t write about Fairfax’s “war on commuters.”

Several commenters sent me yesterday’s Kojo Nnamdi show interviewing Roger Lewis about parking. Lewis praises policies that encourage people to get out of cars and criticizes above-ground parking garages that kill streets, but also makes noises supporting the “war on commuters” frame and admits to driving around and around to find broken parking meters so he can park for free.

Lewis also talks about how so many people grew up in suburbs where parking is free, warping our thinking about parking. He disagrees with callers who insist that all we need is more parking downtown, but also praises the “very large parking garage” in Columbia Heights, which is so big it’s hardly being used and suggests tax subsidies to lower the cost of parking at stores.

One caller lives within walking distance of Van Dorn Street Metro, but can’t walk to the station because the roads are so inhospitable; the park-and-ride lot is always full on weekdays, forcing her to drive. This illustrates the problem with just building more commuter garages as Lewis suggests: the more we design the areas around Metro for large numbers of cars, the fewer people can or will walk to the station.