Same thing in my city. People kvetch endlessly about how hard it is to park downtown. But the city parking utility studies show parking utilization nowhere near 100%, even at peak times. As a friend put it to me years ago, unless there’s a spot within line-of-sight (so even just around the corner doesn’t count) of their destination, drivers say that “there’s no parking.”
Is it so strange that people don’t want to add another 20 minutes to the commute to a place by having to walk several blocks? I have little enough free time as it is. Maybe it can enjoyable if the weather’s good and it’s a nice part of the city but it’s cold here more often than not and most places aren’t particularly scenic.
According to Google Maps, it takes 17 minutes to walk entirely across the isthmus our downtown sits on, from the Edgewater Hotel to the Monona Terrace convention center, and you have to detour around the state capitol to do so. That’s about 10 blocks, and between city, county, and private parking structures, significantly longer than the distance between any destination and nearby parking.
But then, back to the topic of the meme, drivers will willingly add another 20 minutes to their commute by perversely choosing to sit in a traffic congestion, when they could park at a free park-and-ride lot and take the BRT downtown. Last time I went with my mother to a show at the performing arts center, we spent over 20 minutes breathing exhaust fumes just waiting to get out of the parking ramp. (Like many Baby Boomers, she’s weird about public transit. She lives two blocks from a BRT station; we could’ve been home already in the time it took to exit the ramp.)
My downtown is the opposite, extremely hot and sunny. So i get wanting to park near your destination, anything else underscores the convenience of driving. However, it’s impractical and ugly for every block to have tons of parking. Which is why i believe that there should be more carless areas and make downtown a pleasure to walk through. Provide shade, chairs, etc.
Same thing in my city. People kvetch endlessly about how hard it is to park downtown. But the city parking utility studies show parking utilization nowhere near 100%, even at peak times. As a friend put it to me years ago, unless there’s a spot within line-of-sight (so even just around the corner doesn’t count) of their destination, drivers say that “there’s no parking.”
Is it so strange that people don’t want to add another 20 minutes to the commute to a place by having to walk several blocks? I have little enough free time as it is. Maybe it can enjoyable if the weather’s good and it’s a nice part of the city but it’s cold here more often than not and most places aren’t particularly scenic.
not sure how large you envision blocks to be, or what exactly constitutes “several”, but even like 10 fucking blocks shouldn’t take 20 minutes.
According to Google Maps, it takes 17 minutes to walk entirely across the isthmus our downtown sits on, from the Edgewater Hotel to the Monona Terrace convention center, and you have to detour around the state capitol to do so. That’s about 10 blocks, and between city, county, and private parking structures, significantly longer than the distance between any destination and nearby parking.
But then, back to the topic of the meme, drivers will willingly add another 20 minutes to their commute by perversely choosing to sit in a traffic congestion, when they could park at a free park-and-ride lot and take the BRT downtown. Last time I went with my mother to a show at the performing arts center, we spent over 20 minutes breathing exhaust fumes just waiting to get out of the parking ramp. (Like many Baby Boomers, she’s weird about public transit. She lives two blocks from a BRT station; we could’ve been home already in the time it took to exit the ramp.)
My downtown is the opposite, extremely hot and sunny. So i get wanting to park near your destination, anything else underscores the convenience of driving. However, it’s impractical and ugly for every block to have tons of parking. Which is why i believe that there should be more carless areas and make downtown a pleasure to walk through. Provide shade, chairs, etc.