”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’
There once was a time when parking was free on the street — even if it was metered. That time comes to a close as the new year approaches. You can thank DDOT for that one.
Drivers are required to feed their Saturday parking meters starting Jan. 2 despite any disdain they might feel toward the subject.
WaPo says that this isn’t the only change facing DC drivers when it comes to street parking in 2010. DC is planning to finalize a premium parking program that would hike meter costs to $2 an hour while a couple thousand meters will charge 75 cents per hour.
Is there any positive here? Sunday parking is still free. I’d have to say that in this case — something is better than nothing.
Rachel moved to DC in the fall of 2005 to study Journalism and Music at American University. When she’s not keeping up with the latest Major League Baseball news, she works on making music as an accomplished singer-songwriter and was even a featured performer/speaker at TEDxDupont Circle in 2012. Rachel has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and MASN Sports’ Nationals Buzz as a guest blogger. See why she loves DC. E-Mail: rachel@welovedc.com.
Pingback: uberVU - social comments
So it looks like the author thinks free parking is always the preferred option, but is it really?
http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/1884829988
Another hidden tax from DC. The cost of everything is increasing in DC in sneaky ways. Metro passes largest fare hike in history and it benefits travelers with the longest commute. Metro also announces proposed service cuts. Isn’t DC hiking the price of guest permit parking, too?
Free, abundant parking is so evil except when you have 4 kids in your car; an elderly person; a person with a broken leg; or 9 bags of groceries. Or heavens forbid, tourists want to spend more than 2 hours in our museums or at a nice lunch. Don’t forget about the new plastic bag tax!
Fine by me, with a few conditions: 1) we need more credit card meters. Nothing more irritating than only having $1-2 in change or so, since businesses near meters have almost always, in my experience, *refused* steadfastly to make change, and 2) I’d really like meters that allow more than 2 hrs of parking, if only on weekends. I had driven into the city recently to run some errands, and then met a friend to see a movie at Gallery Place. A two-hour movie…
I agree with Matt – if parking is always free then there’ll either never be enough parking, or you’ll have to plan neighborhoods around parking instead of prioritizing other things. Theoretically, if DC implements its performance parking program correctly, then the price per hour will be only as high as necessary to ensure open spots. Thus, Lisa’s elderly friend or her colleague with a broken leg will be able to find parking on the same block as their destination. (Here’s a good post on Greater Great Washington about how performance parking is works in a different city and how it could work here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=1292)
Pingback: Drivers Beware! The Parking Meter Conversion Is Complete. » We Love DC