SDOT Dares to Ask: What Do You Think About Parking in Seattle?

parking fail by Danny Ngan from the Seattlest Flickr pool. License plate number obscured by the Editor.

As some neighborhoods see their meter rates hiked to $4 per hour, while others still ride the wave of expansive free street spots, just about every car-driving resident in Seattle has something to say about what's happening with parking in this town.

And now, the City of Seattle is daring to ask: what it is?

The Seattle Department of Transportation, who manages the meters, spaces, spots, and curbs, wants to know what residents think about the state of parking in the city, and what solutions they have to make it better. So they're offering a survey, which you can take online.

Unsurprisingly, the comments section of SDOT's blog post announcing the opinion poll is where most of the opining is occurring, including several comments by those who don't drive, but still have an opinion. This is likely because the actual link provided in the blog directs potential takers back to the corporate page of the third-party survey client.

But, through some clever sleuthing (read: hovering my cursor over the link and copying down the actual URL that is supposed to be there), I've located the actual survey's location..

If you've got an opinion about parking (surely you do), let SDOT know. It probably won't keep them from raising rates, and it definitely won't make people who are terrible at maneuvering their station wagons take up just one space, but it might make you feel better to take your parking rage out on someone else.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By hanna brooks olsen in News on August 29, 2011 2:00 PM

Comments [rss]

chris

Raise the rates! I'm sorry suburbanites, but there are excellent transit options from the burbs to downtown Seattle, and plenty of park-and-ride locations way out in the sprawl to keep your cars. Sure, it might take you a bit longer to get downtown, but there are so many pluses:
1. stress free in traffic.. you can sit and read a book on your kindle while the bus driver gets to deal with the traffic.
2. productive time.. read a book or browse the web while you make your way downtown. Quite a few sound transit buses even have wifi.
3. excuse to leave the office "oh sorry I have to get out of here or I'll miss the bus". This works especially well if it's approaching midnight and you're still at the office, can't miss the last bus now can you?
4. less traffic for everyone. The long buses, at highway speed, take up no more space than two cars and a short following distance between them, but instead of 2 people, sometimes they have over a hundred. Less congestion and pollution, it's a win-win.
5. Less wear and tear on your car
6. Cheaper.. sure if you own a car, there's that cost you'll still incur, but with a bus pass being only about $90/mo, you'll probably save more in fuel.