Bancroft Elementary. Photo by NCinDC.

DDOT has decided not to implement the Mount Pleasant Day Parking Pass program, at least not as currently conceived. The program would have designated some blocks in the neighborhood as eligible for day pass parkers, if those blocks had low curb occupancy during the day. Employees of area businesses could have purchased a pass for $160 per quarter, or just more than daily bus fare, to park on those blocks from 9 am to 5 pm.

This idea arose when Monroe and Newton Streets and Ingleside Terrace decided to join the Residential Permit Parking (RPP) system. Those are the northernmost three streets in the neighborhood, and both Stoddard Baptist Nursing Home and Bancroft Elementary are located on Newton. Many of those employees currently park on the three non-RPP streets. However, as Jack McKay illustrated, that policy also entices many car owners to warehouse their vehicles for long periods of time on the three streets, making parking occupancy inappropriately high.

McKay and other neighborhood leaders proposed the Day Pass program to give Stoddard and Bancroft an alternative when the three streets convert to RPP and employees can no longer park legally during the day. However, DDOT decided to reject the plan because, according to the City Paper, DDOT’s parking manager Damon Harvey doesn’t think teachers should have to pay for parking. Harvey would prefer to change the RPP hours to allow parking during the day but prohibit it at night.

However, while that plan would fix some of the problems in the area, it would maintain others. McKay wrote on the Mount Pleasant discussion forum,

We considered a 5-to-10pm RPP, for the blocks about to go RPP. Didn’t fly. The residents of these blocks really don’t want to be the designated free commuter parking zone for all of Mount Pleasant. There would be no control over how many commuters might park there, and there’s already a problem of commuters parking on these blocks, then hiking to 16th Street to take the bus downtown, a practice we do not care to support. Nor would there be any financial compensation to the neighborhood for their allowing their streets to be used for commuter parking, as there will be with the daytime passes.

Harvey’s perspective on parking also ignores the larger role parking policy plays in transportation. A teacher who drives to work currently pays nothing to park all day, every day. A teacher who takes the bus pays $2.50 a day; a teacher who takes Metrorail probably pays between $3.30 a day and $9 a day. How is this fair, and why should we preserve a status quo that allows this to persist over another, likely better alternative?

There were also some issues with the day pass program as conceived. For instance, spending $160 for a whole quarter is a lot at one go, and then creates an incentive to drive every day. A better plan would let people buy passes one day at a time, or in coupon books that they could use as needed. That’s relatively easy.

The bigger issue was whether to limit passes by institution. DDOT originally planned to allow each business to purchase only a limited number of passes, to spread out the parking load instead of simply filling up one part of the neighborhood, such as the area around Stoddard and Bancroft. If the purpose of RPP is to ensure some parking availability for residents, without such limits Monroe, Newton and Ingleside would again end up very crowded and the other streets not.

Some posters on the Mount Pleasant forum suggested using the nearby DC USA garage. Right now, it’s very cheap to park for up to four hours, but much more pricey for longer periods. DC could work out a new pricing arrangement to offer a relatively low-cost all-day parking option for local employees.

On Monday, Jim Graham is hosting a community forum to discuss solutions. The meeting starts at 6:30 at La Casa, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St. The Day Pass program and reverse RPP times are among the solutions. What do you think DC should do?

Here’s one possibility: Offer local employees two types of passes. For $2.50 a day, they could park in DC USA. For $5 a day, they could park on neighborhood streets. Offer each pass on a daily basis, as something you can print out from home, a coupon book, or something similar. Use the money to give all teachers at Bancroft a special transportation stipend equal to $2.50 a day, and to give Stoddard some kind of benefit as well (such as a tax credit, if they pay any taxes). Teachers who want to park at DC USA won’t lose any money. Teachers who want to park closer can pay a small amount to do so. And teachers who take transit can use the stipend to pay for their bus or Metro fare instead.

Any other ideas?

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.