Performance park our Metro garages
Photo by inwantamonkey on Flickr.
Metro is getting closer to balancing its budget, but still even some painful service cuts. There’s one place Metro is leaving big money on the table: parking garages.
Most of Metro’s parking garages fill up every weekday, generally, WMATA says, between 7:45 am and 8:30 am. That means that some people just can’t park, especially people whose jobs start later in the day.
According to WMATA, all parking garages fill up except for Landover, Minnesota Avenue, Prince George’s Plaza, College Park, Wheaton, White Flint, and Twinbrook. 35 stations have parking, meaning 28 are filling up every weekday.
Metro should price the parking to meet the demand. If we’re concerned about equity, jurisdictions could give some discounts to low-income residents. But cutting bus service is even more inequitable, since some people don’t have cars.
Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham asked Metro staff how much money we could raise from charging for parking on weekends. Unless weekend garages fill up, however, that change could actually discourage Metro ridership at times when Metro has plenty of capacity. Instead, he should also ask how much Metro could raise by charging a market price for scarce parking during the week. If that can forestall some bus and rail service cuts for residents of the surrounding areas, it’s the right choice.