The National Zoo will propose an aerial tram and 1,428 new parking spaces, according to the Examiner (via DCist). The tram will connect all of the Zoo’s entrances, of which only one is near Metro and half a mile away. Meanwhile, they will construct a new entrance near the Small Mammal House for a huge new parking lot.

Why not connect the tram to a new entrance near Calvert Street or Woodley Road? Zachary Schrag writes that the Zoo considered a Calvert entrance when Metro was constructed, but dropped the idea. That area is a stone’s throw from the Woodley Metro station.

The Examiner article quotes Adams Morgan and Woodley Park community activists as being concerned about parking. What better way to reduce the need to drive to the Zoo than to connect the new tram to Metro? Right now, there’s insufficient parking around the Zoo and desire to park on neighborhood streets. Sounds just like the ballpark. Rather than build seas of parking, they upgraded Metro accessibility and set up residential parking restrictions to stop fans from parking in the neighborhoods. And it worked. We should do the same here.