More about parking as an entitlement in Montgomery County

I read the Takoma-Silver Spring Gazette every week, since this is my greater neighborhood (I do a limited amount of volunteer work for the Main Street Takoma program, which covers the commercial district in both MD and DC) and I can't help but shake my head over the ongoing discussion, letters, etc., over "free parking" for the library at the Rockville Town Center.

What never seems to percolate through into these discussions is a recognition that subsidized parking only benefits drivers, that people who use transit are expected to pay their own way.

I understand the desire to reduce impediments to library use, but favoring one class of library users--in this case automobile drivers--over another is patently unfair. Either start paying for people to ride transit to and from the library, or drop the subsidy. (This is an issue because Montgomery County ends up having to pay for it out of its increasingly strapped budget.)

See:

-- Free libraries have an expanding role by Art Brodsky, a member of the Montgomery County Library Board;
-- County Council votes to reimburse Rockville for library parking
--Reconsider free parking at the county seat's library by George L. Leventhal, an at-large member of the Montgomery County Council and chairs the council's Health and Human Services Committee, which oversees libraries.

Note that DC does provide free parking at certain libraries for library users. I do think it is an unfair subsidy although I am not going to challenge it. (I am still mulling over suggesting that the 30 minute parking for customers that is placed on the west side of Eastern Market ought to be metered, and I am not sure I am prepared for the fallout.)