I'm sure you've written about both of these issues but I don't have the time to check on this.
1. Part of the parking problems in DC stem from the parking barons' monopoly which still has a death-grip on the parking business here. It took ten years for a long-time Georgetown resident working with Carol Schwartz and the Kiwanis League to finally get permission to run a pilot project allowing residents there to park across their dirveways with a special fee and sticker.
2. The Bethesda municipal garages and lots up in the Woodmont area are very easy--and cheap--to use as are the Shirlington garages and lots (free!) in Virginia. In both those locations, especially Shirlington which has no nearby Metro, the public transportation doesn't do it for most folks.
You can always check out the hilarious mockumentary "The Delicate Art of Parking" for more insight into the lives of parking attendants.
Raising parking prices on streets downtown could also lead to more people actually using the transit system of major cities, thereby increase revenues to that system by way of higher street-park rates and higher ridership.
Tho I'm not sure that the two would necessarily be connected. People might just get real ticked off...
Bethesda's lots are horrible. They only accept change (who's idea was that?) and you have to fee the meter every two hours. I refuse to go to Bethesda. It's too hard to get their with transit unless you live along the red line. And the parking situation is ridiculous.
As for SF, I didn't even realize they had parking permits for residential neighborhoods. That's new. And frankly, a lot of people would just assume rent a garage space in SF, which is a lot more expensive than a Muni FastPass.
SF has it somewhat right -- Muni, parking enforcement and traffic management are all part of the same department -- the Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT, which I always joked meant Don't Park There). But they have ridiculous alternating days of parking, and since there are no alleys -- every time someone wants to add a garage to their house, they have to lift the house and put parking beneath, which takes out the street parking. Transit in SF is fine, except it can be very slow -- in part that's because it's almost all surface and so must compete with traffic (very often their aren't dedicated lanes) -- it's sort of a big mess out there. And with garages in the financial district running about $30 per hour (most are owned by the city), you are pretty much forced to park on the street. And as SF has gotten more and more expensive, middle class families (and a lot of other people) have been forced to move to the suburbs which are transit accessible, but not entirely.
The real issue in terms of anger is that the towing companies are ridiculous, the impound process is maddening, and the parking patrol officers have quite a bit of attitude.
Are you joking about the monthly transit pass being $545?
In Chicago, CTA (which includes Pace buses) is $75. Metra ranges depending on your zones, but I believe the most expensive montly pass is $170.
University and community college students here get U-PASS at a variable rate dependent on negotiations between the school and the CTA (and Pace). For UIC students, the U-PASS is mandatory (one of the stipulations of the agreement between UIC and CTA) and it costs $95 and is useful for 4 months, an enormous bargain.
I bike so I sold mine - caveat: CTA personnel can revoke the pass from the holder for practically any reason.
Shirlington could be served by Metro if only the planners would wake up to the idea of putting another subway/or even surface line where the WO&D bike trail is now.Old rail rights of way have 200 feet on either sides of the track- and this would be more than enough for a bicycle path also.The WO&D goes right thru many old,transit starved downtown/town centers and it would open up large areas of N Va to transit.It is idiotic and burecratic to let it sit dormant.
That's $545 annually. It's like $45 a month. It used to be $30, but it is still a good deal, because in addition to Muni Metro and buses, you can also use it on the BART stations inside SF. It doesn't cover the cable cars, though, they have a separate pass (because they are a lot more expensive to ride per trip.)
I know you guys in the states were born at the steering wheel, but the solution to parking problems is -don't take your car. In London UK, where parking fees in the central area are upwards of £25.00 a day and the congestion charge of £7.00 adds another layer of cost and a great dissincentive to people to drive into the centre. The result is that since the congestion zone was introduced in central London traffic has reduced by 17%, but speaking as someone who lives right by Oxford Circus, I reckon that traffic has reduced by 25%. The result - the streets are inhabited by people, not cars making them safer and less polluted.
The question we must all ask ourselves is how do we encourage people to use different forms of transport?
Wendy -if only more people had your insight we would have an even better city to live in.
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