Placards - Greater Greater Washington

Visitor parking passes won't go citywide, yet

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:45:00 EDT

The District's pilot program of visitor parking passes recently expanded to Ward 1 and the Howard Theatre area of Ward 6, but contrary to some recent press reports, it isn't yet expanding the program citywide. DDOT is, however, currently studying what to do for the long term with visitor parking and other parking policy questions.

Photo by DennisSylvesterHurd on Flickr.

A few years ago, DDOT tried a pilot program where residents of a few wards, where on-street parking is generally plentiful, get permanent placards that let visitors park during the day in Resident Permit Parking (RPP) zones. The pilot has never become permanent, and DDOT officials have long said they want to study other long-term approaches before establishing a final program or taking it citywide.

Recent legislation expanded the program to Ward 1 (Columbia Heights, U Street, Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant), and DDOT issued a rulemaking giving them the authority to set up some kind of citywide program. "This authority is important," said spokesman John Lisle, "as DDOT is initiating a comprehensive parking policy review." The rulemaking led to some mistaken press reports which claimed the pass program was rolling out across the city. Lisle said, "Nothing has been decided at this time."

Residents who want to weigh in on visitor parking, and other parking issues, can participate in DDOT's policy review at 1 of 5 Parking Think Tanks or through an online survey.

Lisle noted that placards in DDOT's pilot are one of many potential approaches to visitor parking. Some cities provide residents a book of day passes, half-day passes or hour passes to give to visitors. Other jurisdictions provide placards that are good for 2 weeks or a month. Sometimes, the passes and placards are free; sometimes only the first several are free; and sometimes each pass costs money.

In the District, all residents can currently get free 2-week visitor passes, one at a time without limit, from their local police station. In addition, residents of Wards 3, 4 and 5, along with portions of Wards 1 and 6, receive year-long visitor parking placards.

This placard system has some pitfalls, especially in areas with higher parking demand. Giving many more privileges to park in crowded areas makes it harder for those already parking there to find spaces. Some people who get placards don't need them for themselves, and may either give or surreptitiously sell them to commuters or other people who aren't exactly visiting. DDOT officials monitor sites like Craigslist for placards for sale, but can't stop more private transactions.

In the lower-density wards where the pilot started, this doesn't harm existing parkers much and the black market demand for placards may be small, but in busier areas like Wards 1, 2 and 6, there is more incentive to abuse placards, with more deleterious effects. Meanwhile, places like Ward 2 have more bountiful garage parking and more plentiful transit, either of which commuters should use instead of parking on residential streets.

Clearly, the District needs a coherent citywide visitor parking program that will take into account the lessons of the placard pilot, as well as practices in other jurisdictions and, of course, public input. Towards that end, earlier this year, DDOT hired its first parking manager, Angelo Rao, to guide the formulation of parking policies that meet the particular needs of DC and its many neighborhoods.

Just expanding the program isn't the answer. In Ward 2 (downtown, Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, Dupont, Logan), commuters currently pay hundreds of dollars per month to park in garages near jobs. If DDOT made Ward 2 visitor placards widely available, this could lead to a black market for the Ward 2 visitor parking placards. A flood of visitors with free placards and commuters with illegally-purchased placards parking on Ward 2 streets would make it much harder for actual residents to park near their homes.

Give DDOT your parking ideas by attending one of the Think Tanks or filling out the survey. They have two Think Tanks scheduled in wards 7 and 8 on September 19 and 20, and promise to announce more soon in the northern and western portions of the District.

14 comments

Without balance, parking bills will hurt business (May 19, 2009)
DC's "red top" disabled parking program goes on hold (Mar 20, 2012)
Graham proposes performance parking expansion (Oct 9, 2008)
Fix all of Dupont's parking problems tonight (Apr 3, 2012)
Does RPP force new residents to drive? (May 26, 2009)

Sulaimon Brown arrested, does one thing right

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:28:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Sulaimon Brown was arrested in a traffic stop. Was it because police recognized him, as he says, or because he had a fake police parking placard? (Post) ... He's right about one thing: if an unmarked car pulls you over, it's best to stay in the car and call 911. (We Love DC)

Comment

UFT still narrow-minded on parking (Jan 19, 2008)
Mayor, Councilmembers arrested; what's next? (Apr 11, 2011)
Park Police arrest people for dancing at Jefferson Memorial (May 30, 2011)
Live chat: Kwame Brown, DC Councilmember at-large (Mar 27, 2009)
Shocking video shows serious Park Police disregard for rights (Jun 23, 2011)

Wells would keep Circulator fare, expand CaBi, and more

Wed, 11 May 2011 10:30:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Tommy Wells would like to keep the Circulator fare at $1, add 40 more Capital Bikeshare stations, hire needed people at DDOT including a parking czar, set up performance parking on H Street, fund green alleys, and more. Increased residential parking fees, including for households with extra vehicles, and some higher fines will pay for these priorities.

Photo by DDOTDC on Flickr.

These are some of the recommendations in the draft budget report from the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, which Wells chairs. The committee oversees DDOT, the Department of Public Works, the DMV, WMATA, and a few others, and the report covers budget changes to those programs.

The recommendations include:

Expand CaBi faster. $2 million in capital funding would fund 40 more Capital Bikeshare stations in the core and in more peripheral neighborhoods.

This would add to the 25 already planned and other stations that private developers or federal agencies will pay for. In total, DDOT says this will allow the system to double from its original size within 2 years of the September 2010 launch.

Fund green alleys. Many alleys have crumbling surfaces and greatly need repair, but there hasn't been much money for this in recent years. $1 million would fund a new Green Alleys program, picking some alleys to rebuild with permeable paving, energy-efficient LED lighting, trees, and more.

Keep Circulator fare. Wells is proposing to keep the Circulator fare at $1, rolling back Mayor Gray's proposal to make it $2 cash and $1.50 with SmarTrip. Downtown businesses argued that it would cut ridership substantially, perhaps even reversing all or most of the expected revenue gain. The Circulator is also going east of the river, and some felt it wasn't right for it to finally go there and double in price at the same time.

The funding for this comes partly through use of one-time funds at WMATA, so the Council will have to look at the Circulator fare again next year. Wells wants that to happen once the Council has reviewed and approved DDOT's plans for longer-term Circulator expansion.

Semi-replace 7th Street Circulator. The north-south Circulator is still going away. To partly make up for it, WMATA is creating a 74 bus to travel between I Street NW and the Southwest Waterfront along a route similar to that part of the Circulator's, and extending the V8 bus, which connects Minnesota Avenue to Southwest, along 7th Street to downtown as well.

Hire ward planners, development reviewers, and parking czar. Wells also wants to restore six positions at DDOT which have been vacant for some time. Gray's budget cut most vacant positions entirely. The six positions include three ward planners, for wards 2, 3, and 5. The ward planners made sure that all DDOT projects in a ward fit together well, and provided useful points of contact for the communities involved.

DDOT also needs to staff up its development review department, which looks at planned developments and zoning filings and encourage developers to effectively accommodate pedestrians and bicycles, consider good stormwater management, and include Transportation Demand Management programs. Wells would add 2 positions for this.

The final and most exciting staff position is a parking program manager, or "parking czar." DDOT's parking program has been a tremendous disappointment for years. The performance parking pilot zones didn't see the kind of experimentation that the legislation asked for. Some neighborhoods have wanted performance parking but haven't been able to get it.

DDOT has been mailing out free visitor parking passes in several wards, which leaves large opportunities for abuse. They have promised for years to set up a better system, but haven't. If they can get a good parking program manager, DDOT can finally be the national leader in parking policies they once seemed to be , but got eclipsed by San Francisco and other cities.

Start performance parking on H Street. Wells would create a third performance parking zone, around H Street NE (G to I Streets from 3rd to 15th). Residential streets in the area would become resident-only for one side of the street, as in the other zones, and meters set to achieve 10-20% available spaces.

Protect neighborhood RPP funds. The performance parking pilot zones dedicate most of the revenue raised to local neighborhood improvements, giving residents a stake in the success of performance parking. Gray's budget took this money away to use as general revenue; Wells wants to restore it.

Maintain traffic enforcement officers. The proposal would restore 5 traffic enforcement officers cut in Gray's budget. There are plenty of places where enforcement can make pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers all safer by stopping dangerous behavior. Also, DDOT wants to do more to stop parking in loading zones, bus stops, and handicap placard abuse.

Keep "sweepercam" tickets. Gray's budget eliminated the "sweepercam" system, where street sweeping trucks automatically photograph vehicles illegally blocking sweeping and DPW can send them tickets. Without this, DPW would have to have people manually enforce the sweeping.

Also, as the report points out, the cameras allow DPW not to ticket anyone parked in a sweeping zone after the actual sweeping has finished, whereas if officers did it manually, they wouldn't know and would still ticket those cars. The committee report restores $300,000 for this program.

Create a DDOT enterprise fund. When DDOT lost its "unified fund," it lost some ability to dynamically fund innovations without going through the Council first. Budget staff at that time talked about creating a special fund with some money that can go to such programs. Wells' proposal moves Capital Bikeshare advertising revenue into this fund, along with truck weight fees, multispace meter advertising, car sharing fees, loading zone permit fees, and a few others.

And more. Wells' proposal also funds a "bait bike" where officers place a bike which looks ripe to steal, and watch to catch people who try to steal it. $50,000 will also go to the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation for neighborhood parks. Gray's budget cut the $10,000 annual funding each for the Bicycle Advisory Council and the Pedestrian Advisory Council; Wells is restoring both.

Revenue

How will Wells and his committee pay for all this?

Errors in the budget. Some money comes from finding mistakes in the budget. For example, Gray's budget office moved a lot of DDOT positions from the capital budget over to the operating budget. That's mainly an accounting issue; the jobs are still there, but some categories of spending went from large amounts to zero and other categories went from zero to big. Upon scrutinizing all of this, Council staff realized that some of the jobs had been moved over twice, leading to double-funding in the budget.

Higher and graduated RPP fees. A big part of the increase comes from a longtime GGW recommendation: increasing RPP fees, especially for households with multiple cars. DC's fees for resident parking permits are remarkably low, at $15/year. Renting any other chunk of space anywhere in the city costs far more. San Francisco charges $98/year, for example.

Under Wells' proposal, RPP fees will increase to $35/year, except for seniors 65 and older who will only pay $25/year. Once the DMV finishes a computer upgrade to support it, additional permits for each household will cost $50/year for the second and $100/year for additional permits beyond that.

Fines for repeat parking offenders. Fines for parking in residential areas beyond the 2 hours allowed, or for parking in resident-only areas, would increase for repeat offenders. The fine now is $30, except $60 around the ballpark during games only. The $30 fines would remain $30 for the 1st and 2nd tickets someone receives in a single calendar year, but become $60 beyond that.

Reciprocity fees. Congressional, military, Presidental appointees, and some others are allowed to have reciprocity permits, getting the benefits of registering cars in DC including RPP permits but without actually becoming DC residents. They pay $10 annually for this, while students have to pay $338 and temporary residents $250. Wells proposes increasing the reciprocity fee to $50.

What's not included

WMATA, fully. Gray's budget slightly increased DC's contributions to WMATA, but DC was still $10.422 million short of the level needed to avoid service cuts. Wells found another $6.265 million, and is asking the Council to consider the other $4.157 million as a council-wide priority in the next phase of the budget process.

Each committee first considers its own budget, and moves around money within that area, raising related revenues if desired to restore programs. Then, the whole Council looks at further cuts or restorations broadly; the remaining WMATA gap will be one of them.

Street sweeping inspectors. Gray's budget cuts the numbers of officers enforcing street sweeping rules. Wells said in this morning's markup that he wanted to increase the numbers, but unlike with the DDOT traffic officers, the CFO wouldn't certify revenue from these officers, so the Council would have to come up with more revenue to restore them.

Policies

The committee report also touches on some other topics which aren't line items in the budget, but which have budgetary implications. It asks DDOT to organize a task force to look at long-term transportation funding as gas taxes decline; to try to implement Circulator expansions even sooner than proposed; to add more efficient streetlights; and more. DDOT has also promised to conduct a transportation study on M Street SE/SW.

For DPW, the committee asks them to aggressively push fleet sharing, especially to replace older vehicles; to come up with a strategy to increase recycling; and to publish more information on costs that Wells has been asking for.

The committee had its markup session scheduled for 10 am, but as of this writing didn't have enough Councilmembers present to make up a quorum. Assuming it passes the markup, this will get agglomerated with the budget reports from the other committees.

The full Council will then take up the WMATA funding issue and other larger priorities from other areas. Issues outside of transportation, like the proposed income tax increase for people making over $200,000 and cuts to human services, will be debated at the full Council level.

39 comments

DC 2010 budget would end Saturday free parking (Mar 24, 2009)
Got any big ideas for the DDOT budget? (Dec 1, 2010)
Wells pushes DDOT to perform better on parking (Mar 1, 2011)
Council will debate parking meter hike Monday (Dec 5, 2008)
Tommy Wells gets transportation chair, WMATA Board (Dec 22, 2010)

WMATA employees park free

Wed, 04 May 2011 08:26:00 EDT

by Erik Weber

Employees of the 14th Street bus garage are using handicapped placards to park for free all day in metered, on-street parking spaces. Even if the placards are legitimate, they may only be used for 4 hours. (MyFoxDC)

Comment

WMATA reaches agreement to use DC USA garage (Apr 21, 2010)
Taxing the parking subsidies of free spaces (Apr 16, 2008)
DC making DC USA garage free (Feb 8, 2010)
"All I want for New Year's is free parking" (Jan 4, 2008)
Georgetown Post Office shows need for performance parking (Dec 8, 2010)

Fake placard involved in NYC bomb scare

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:17:00 EDT

by David Alpert

After Mayor Bloomberg cracked down on excessive free-parking placards in New York, many police keep refusing to ticket illegally-parked vehicles bearing some fake placards, like ones from the police union or police fraternal organizations. One van bearing a fraternal group's placard was parked illegally in Times Square for two days but received no scrutiny; then, a private security guard noticed the blacked-out windows and called the bomb squad, prompting a partial evacuation of several buildings. Everything is okay, but detectives can't explain why the van got a free pass with its fake pass. (AP via @naparstek)

Comment

More Metro Kiss & Park

Mon, 11 May 2009 08:48:00 EDT

Responding to our link to Metro employees abusing parking privileges at a Kiss and Ride, reader Kevin writes, "At Stadium-Armory the employees park on the sidewalk above the station all day, and Metro ignores this also."

Comment

H Street United? (Apr 9, 2009)
Racial politics kept College Park Metro far from campus (Dec 4, 2007)
Are you ready for some Metro? (Nov 3, 2008)
2003 WMATA expansion map (Sep 5, 2008)
Free Metro parking for inauguration? (Nov 21, 2008)

Kiss & Park for Metro employees?

Thu, 07 May 2009 16:55:00 EDT

A Metro employee parks all day in the Takoma kiss-and-ride on a regular basis. After a rider asks him, he admits he shouldn't do it, then keeps doing it. (Unsuck DC Metro)

Comment

Help us understand route decisions on Metro (May 1, 2009)
Three Maryland delegates sign Google Transit petition (Dec 15, 2008)

Breakfast links: Frustrated about driving edition

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:45:48 EDT

by David Alpert

The great bike lane debate continues: Friday's post on right hooks and Alice Swanson reignited the debate over bike lanes. Do they make cyclists safer (by giving them dedicated space) or less safe (by moving them next to traffic where turning cars can hit them)? Infosnack HQ found this thoughtful paper on the issue.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

Inconvenient for you isn't "dangerous": The Post's Dr. Gridlock sides with MoCo transportation engineers who narrowed Arcola Avenue (near Georgia and Unviersity), adding pedestrian refuges and bulb-outs. The changes make a dangerous intersection safer for pedestrians, but irritate some drivers that liked to go fast on the former shortcut.

Logan ANC hotheaded about Zipcar: Last Wednesday, the Logan Circle ANC voted to recommend removal of a Zipcar lot at 14th and Corcoran because Zipcar hadn't landscaped it as promised and a Zipcar rep hadn't yet shown up to discuss the issue. Later in the meeting, once the rep arrived and answered questions, the ANC withdrew the resolution. 14th and You is disappointed in the ANC for its hasty voting on this issue and on the racially-tinged single sales ban.

Evans illegally parked in crosswalk: Channel 9 has the story about Councilmember Evans' car sitting in a crosswalk across from the Verizon Center during Saturday's game. Via ANC2C02 Forum.

28 comments

A better 14th Street coming soon (Feb 25, 2008)
Dupont's 18th Street next for reconstruction (May 16, 2008)
Which way for one-way streets and reversible lanes? (Jan 14, 2008)
On the calendar: 17th, 18th, bike lanes and streetcars (Jul 29, 2009)
The hazards of driving: Michael Phelps and you (Aug 18, 2009)

Breakfast links: Special interests edition

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:42:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Cleveland Park's Park and Shop. Photo by Mr. T in DC.

Roger Lewis on the Park and Shop: In his latest appearance on Kojo, architect Roger Lewis talks about the role of politics in historic preservation, including the loss of historic neighborhoods in Southwest in the 1960s, the Park and Shop at the Cleveland Park Metro, the MLK Library, and the closing of G Street to build the Verizon Center.

Congestion pricing is the equitable alternative: Opponents of congestion pricing have used "regressive tax" demagoguery to scare politicians away from supporting the policy. Not only is this misleading (since the same politicians' constituents would benefit from the improved transit), but it's not even regressive compared to the alternatives.

Handicap parking abuse rampant in Florida: So many seniors have handicapped parking permits in Florida that those truly in need can't park. One major problem is that anyone with a permit can park for four hours for free at meters, and the limit is rarely enforced. Parking Today recommends disabled advocacy groups stop fighting for free parking and embrace their slogan of "access, not charity".

HOT lane builders padding VA campaign coffers: Companies building Virginia's beltway-expanding HOT lanes (which won't pay for themselves) have donated large sums of money to elected officials supporting the project.

Ward Court resolved (for now): After last week's spectacle at the Dupont ANC with five officials from four government departments disagreeing about Ward Court, DDOT went back and measured, and decided it was right the first time to allow parking on one side. But this time, DPW says they will stop writing tickets. (Current)

Comment

The parking front of the commuter "war" (Jul 8, 2008)
On Hilton, HPO takes broad view of historic compatibility (Sep 30, 2008)
Agencies still confused about Ward Court parking (Aug 14, 2008)
The war on pedestrians continues (May 29, 2008)
A better 14th Street coming soon (Feb 25, 2008)

"Anytime" includes campaign time

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:00:11 EDT

by David Alpert

Reader A.G. sent in this photo of an illegally parked van:

That's a "No Standing or Parking Anytime" sign at the top of the pole pointing toward Kwame's van.

8 comments

Brown and Orange talk parking tickets (Sep 4, 2010)
The ridiculous world of Emergency No Parking signs (Jul 16, 2008)
You just got a ticket (Oct 27, 2008)
It's not the funeral lane (Sep 4, 2009)
Klingle rebuild probably dead (Apr 26, 2008)

NYC will crack down on placard abuse

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:15:40 EDT

by David Alpert

A year-long campaign by TA and other livable streets activists has paid off in a very short time: the Bloomberg Administration (which, lately, has been very good on transportation issues not involving the Yankees), is Yankees), is restricting the number of parking placards and stepping up enforcement.

Comment

Can NYC build me a personal garage too? (Jan 2, 2008)
DC versus New York (Mar 6, 2008)
New York's DC USA, but with a ferry instead of Metro (Aug 14, 2008)
Obama supports congestion pricing (Mar 28, 2008)
UFT disappoints on parking (Jan 8, 2008)