Metro Parking Squatters

Today’s commute was quite amusing. Back in November, the temporary parking lot at Vienna Metro station was closed because condos are going to be built on that property. Parking has been scarce ever since especially on warm days. People have been making their own parking spots where spots don’t exist and some people have been parking in the reserved parking. Lately Metro police officers have been out ticketing those cars especially on Tuesdays. Yesterday they were there ticketing and of course there were no spaces where I could park until 10 when the reserved parking opened up. I couldn’t wait that long so I drove to work. Today when I got there it was about 8 minutes to ten so I parked and stayed in the car. There were lots of others sitting in or standing around their cars as well – all waiting for 10:00. I saw a few people get out of their car and start walking toward the station but they went back to their cars. I’m guessing maybe they saw some officers out there writing tickets but I’m not sure. At 10:00, however, people came from all directions toward the metro station. All these people were essentially “squatting” in spots until the time restriction was over. The flow of people reminded me of the herds of people arriving at an amusement park and walking toward the entrance.

We obviously need more parking at this Metro station. The temporary parking lot that was closed had 680 spaces which were typically filled. Every day Metro is losing parking fees for these 680 spaces. If these people have found another way to work they are losing the fares as well. Perhaps the tickets are a way to make up some of that lost revenue. I don’t know how many with reserved passes park on a given day but it seems mostly empty in the North Garage where the entire third floor is reserved. I imagine that this no parking situation will be a common occurrence for me as I tried to get a reserved pass but wound up pretty far down on the waiting list.

Metro has proposed a new parking garage that would be completed two years from now. In the meantime, we need some alternatives. I haven’t heard of any alternatives but I have suggestions. One idea is to shorten the reserved parking time – open them up at 9:30. Another is to set up temporary parking off-site with shuttle buses. Anything would be a relief.

Possibly Related Posts:

• June 13, 2006 -- No Parking No Where
• January 26, 2008 -- Looking for Motivation to Use Metro
• June 20, 2006 -- Two Less Cars on Orange Line Trains
• June 4, 2006 -- Metro is Accessible (to everyone)
• February 12, 2008 -- Voted