Residential Parking Zone changes
This week's Capitol Hill Times has a long article explaining the City's proposals to change the Residential Parking Zone regulations. Pick up a paper copy while you can, or go here for the (unformatted) electronic version. Here's the City webpage, with information and a place for you to have your say.
The general theme (as also seen in zoning changes that the City is proposing) is to make parking and car ownership more difficult. The argument is that car ownership is un-necessary if there are easy alternative ways to get to work: bus, walk, bike, light rail, SLUT.
The flaw in those arguments (IMHO) is that the City is only thinking of us as WORKERS, and all that matters is to them is how we worker bees get from our bedrooms to our desks.
But we're more than workers and the State of Washington is more than a collection of bedrooms: it's a majestic State full of all sorts of outdoor opportunities that we probably all want to enjoy. And, let's face it, it's awfully hard to do most of that without your own car. I commute by bike (and my wife does so by foot) and we use our car principally for recreation: getting to hiking, camping, cycling, snowshoeing etc.
That's all a verbose way to encourage you to study the City's Residential Parking Zone suggestions, and to make your views known (loud and clear) to the folks in the City.
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2 comments:
The city also seems to believe we do nothing outside of morning and afternoon commute times since that's the only time there is reliable and frequent bus service for many places in the city.
This war on parking is counterproductive. By reducing parking requirements for development, cars are pushed onto city streets. When a transportation proposal needs space on those same streets (streetcars, rail, monorail, bus rapid transit), it creates a vigorous, loud, and very committed opposition.
It's one of those ideas that sounds good on its face, but is short sighted.
Plus, the buses are inefficient - they stop every other block....
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