I drive to work every day. The commute doesn't bother me that much. What does bother me is the parking, or lack thereof.
As a sample of the shittiness of parking, here are my options for parking by work:
1) Park in the garage below my office, which costs $130+ a month.
That shit is not happening. I pay Zero Dollars to park in VA at home, and I'm damn sure not shelling out over a grand a year for that convenience at work. Alternatively, it's $9 a day, which I shell out when I'm lazy, late, or hungover. But still, never a good option.
2) Park in the garage up the street for $7/day.
Well, if I refuse to shell out $9 a day, $7 sure as hell aint happening either. If I'm going to park anywhere near work, I might as well move it myself and not pay.
3) Park at a meter for $2/hour
This is absurd, and more than the garage. Only if I have another spot and have to move my car and there are NO other spots am I doing this shit briefly.
4) Park in the neighborhood
This is what I do most days, and occasionally get a ticket. A handful of awesome spots by work, but more likely I'm moving my car every four hours.
Bottom line here: I don't care that anyone reads this, or cares about my parking woes. But it is BULLSHIT the rapidity with which Parking Enforcement officers here prowl the streets for violators. I have gotten tickets for 2 hours 5 min in 2 hour zones, tickets for when I moved my car, but not far away enough from where I previously parked it. Then there are those awful bullshit tickets where the meter's broken and you get a ticket anyway because you can't prove it.
Here's my thing though; if you want to push people to use the metro by raising parking rates, fine. But then don't tier pricing and raise the rates on public transportation! I pay less in gas for my car than it would to take the metro a couple stops during rush hour for a month, which at these gas prices is ridiculous. Peak of the peak is effing clownshoes.
The other thing- what's the point of paying $8/hour for parking? The streets are now ghostly with where cars could be (unless their drivers are in there). Ohhh, yeah, I could call some number and pay automatically. Otherwise I gotta bring a sockful of quarters every time I want to pay for a couple hours of parking.
What should be the case? If you're obsessed with generating income for the city, have permits available you can buy from the city at a REASONABLE price so I can avoid paying as much in tickets or to garages. Yes, I know these are available by zone for city residents, but commuters get screwed here. I know you're not going to slack your enforcement, since you can hand out those nice tickets and get some income. Just be reasonable. Shit. That pisses me off.
