Another example of getting the story wrong

While I agree that DC is maybe a little too gung ho about ticketing, the reality is that the city has about 260,000 on-street parking spaces throughout the city (see the DDOT report Mayor’s Parking Task Force (2003)) and fewer than 10% of the spaces are metered. In short, there is a limited supply of spaces.

So like Bill Myers who wrote about the lamentations of police officers getting tickets while being paid overtime for testifying at the Courts in the Examiner, Tim Craig focuses on the plight of people breaking the law and having to pay for it, in "Street Sweepers May Ticket You " from the Post.

As of the 2007 Census, there are 248,338 households in the city. While 38% of the households don't have cars at all, that still means that there are at least 154,000 cars out there waiting and wanting to be parked. Even if all of the automobile drivers aren't looking to park on the street, that's a lot of cars out there.

There are about 570,000 jobs in the city, of which 400,000 are occupied by people who don't live in the city. Many of them drive in.

In short, there aren't enough parking spaces to accommodate 248,338 households, 400,000 non-resident workers, millions of visitors, all the delivery traffic, etc.

So you provide "incentives" to use forms other than driving to come to the city. Tickets are disincentives, and they are good incentives for people to make better decisions, just as parking fees are. For example, the Fairfax edition of the Post Extra section has this article, "For More Riders, 'the Bus Is Beautiful': Commuters Leaving Cars at Home To Save the Cost of Parking at the Metro." The concept is the same...

From the article:

Bad luck put Haydee Moore, 60, on Fairfax Connector Bus No. 621 from her home in Penderbrook to the Vienna Metro station last week, after her car had broken down.

But bad luck turned to good when she discovered how comfortable the 45-minute ride was, how much easier it was than staking out the always-full Park-and-Ride lot at the station, and how much cheaper it was than paying the $5 daily parking fee.

"The bus is beautiful," Moore said as she prepared to board a train to Metro Center, where she works as a makeup artist and cosmetics marketer in a department store. Moore's car is fixed, but she has no plans to return to her old commute, she said.

Optimal mobility is not automobility. And if Haydee Moore can learn this, so can others.

Image extracted from the Vancouver BC Transportation Plan.