National Airport Parking, WWJJD?

An electric sign at the southbound airport entrance tells drivers about vacancies in the parking garage at Reagan National Airport on Thursday. Brig Cabe/Examiner

Today's Examiner has an article about people complaining about not enough parking at the airport, Parking at a premium at National Airport. From the online article: "This thing was full before it was finished," Purpuro said Thursday as he made his way for the terminal. "They are out of touch with what the customers need."

Interestingly enough, the online article is much shorter than the in-print article (not long either) which includes this quote: "Loren Newton, a 44-year-old Alexandria resident, said she would miss her flight if she used Metro. 'Depending on public transportation? It's unreliable because the trains you can't time[.]'"

Sorry, but this is bullshit. There's no way a person from Alexandria can't get to the airport by subway on-time if she leaves 60-75 minutes before her flight. If you live within easy catchment area of the subway system, there is really no excuse to not take Metro unless you have lots of luggage and/or people, particularly young children.

Anyway, to repeat another Jane Jacobs saying, paraphrased. "If you're asking why aren't there enough roads, you're asking the wrong question."

"The right question is 'why are there so many cars.'"

With the kind of subway access to National Airport that most airports around the country lack, there are few excuses to not take transit. Furthermore, why should people pay higher airport passenger fees to build more parking lots? Clearly that's but another subsidy to overly selfish drivers.
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Also see "Using Metro to get to the airports"

Waiting at National Airport by Burnt Pixel via Flickr.