Parking Washington Dc

The High Cost of Free Parking

Published by the American Planning Association , The High Cost of Free Parking was the first book on the economics and politics of parking. In the book, Shoup shows how so-called “free” parking is devastating U.S. cities — from the cost of subsidizing off-street parking to increasing traffic congestion and distorting urban landscapes.

Sparing no one when attacking what he calls “wrong-headed” parking policies, Shoup is a UCLA professor who has spent 35 years studying the impact our cars have when we aren’t driving them. He reports that in 2002, the subsidy for off-street parking was between $127 billion and $374 billion, more than the U.S. spent on Medicare that year.

To correct these parking policy problems Shoup advocates three things:

Setting the right price for curb parking. Cities can use performance pricing to vary meter rates according to proximity, time of day, and day of week to achieve about an 85 percent occupancy rate. This would mean one to two curb spaces would remain vacant throughout the day on a given block. Washington, D.C. and Seattle, Washington, are testing performance parking policies, and San Francisco has implemented SF park that automatically monitors parking demand and adjusts prices monthly.

Return parking revenue to pay for local public services. Shoup argues that drivers will be more willing to pay higher meter rates if cities return the money directly to the metered district ( not into the city’s general fund). The money can be used to increase local public services in the district. Pasadena, Redwood City, San Diego, and Ventura, California, return some or all of the meter revenue to pay for added public services in the metered districts. So do Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

Remove minimum parking requirements. According to Shoup, most cities erroneously view their parking problems result from a shortage of spaces, not from underpricing. He estimates that required off-street parking accounts for one-third of the cost of a typical new office building. Shoup suggests allowing in-lieu fees by allowing developers to pay a fee in lieu of providing the required number of parking spaces. Another option is for cities to reduce the demand for parking through transit incentives. Since 2005, Shoup estimates that at least 129 cities have removed off-street parking requirements in their downtowns.

Where are DC's downtown surface parking lots? - Greater Greater ...

They're more harmful to cities than empty lots, because they encourage more driving, which in turn encourages more parking lots. Washington, DC is lucky not to have very many of them.

We do have some, however, and their locations can tell us something about our city.

Where are DC's surface parking lots? Where is there a lot of underused land? What property owners are doing harm to the city? Where can future development be most easily accommodated? With these questions in mind, I mapped the surface parking lots of downtown Washington:

Dan Malouff is a professional transportation planner for the Arlington County Department of Transportation. He has a degree in Urban Planning from the University of Colorado, and lives a car-free lifestyle in Northwest Washington. His posts are his own opinions and do not represent the views of his employer in any way. He runs the blog BeyondDC and also contributes to the Washington Post Local Opinions blog.  I'm not surprised to see that alot of these lots are in NOMA - for those with a long memory, a parking lot used to be the most economically productive use of land in the area. Now that the NY Ave Metro is open and there is more construction and development in the neighborhood, these parking lots will over time no doubt be built on as it becomes economically viable to do so. Is the author of this post arguing for something different?

by grumpy A lot of MVT used to be parking lots. When I moved into my building most of the buildings around me were still showed as parking lots on google maps.

A lot of these parking lots are planned developments that were stopped because of the financial crisis. While 425 mass seems to be doing well now, the project went bankrupt as the Dumont only a couple years ago.

It would be interesting to see this map compared to a map of 5 years ago and, if possible, what is planned for the next 5 years.

Give the convention center time. It took MCI (now verizon) a while to build out chinatown. The development will come.

by Sam This map is not extensive enough and does nt include the giant surface parking areas around the Capitol South area- including a monster right atop the Metro station- this should be a national embarassment and scandal- what a total waste of resources. And what is "downtown"? anyway?

The Everything Family Guide to Washington D.C., All the Best Hotels, Restaurants, Sites, and Attractions

Fodor's Washington, D.C. 2008, With Mount Vernon, Old Town Alexandria & Annapolis

Fodor's Washington, D.C. 2010, With Mount Vernon, Alexandria & Annapolis

Fodor's Family Washington D.C. with Kids

The Unofficial Guide to Washington