No More Free Parking on Saturdays

Posted by admin in DC Life on 12 29th, 2009 | no responses

Even as a dedicated pedestrian, I get an instinctual rush of frustration at the news that the District is eliminating free parking on Saturday . It’s a wrongheaded reaction that is easy to internalize, given the car-centric nature of our government, media, and broader society. But why should higher parking rates upset people in DMV? The city is well serviced by Metro train and bus lines. So while it may be inconvenient for drivers hoping to take in an evening feature at the E Street Theater after Metro extends meter hours

downtown to 10:30 p.m., the theater remains entirely accessible by a number of public transit options. It would be great if the news from the D.C. Department of Transportation were met by news that WMATA was adding more trains on the weekend. As it stands, the $2 per hour fee seems too low to actually discourage parking in downtown and other high-traffic destinations — or rather, it will not do enough to encourage turnover and stimulate commerce.