The Downtown Parking Epidemic

In meeting after meeting, I have noted the same observation as this Fresno blogger: people think that there is a parking shortage downtown, and yet parking is so plentiful it is strangling decent urbanism there.

I assume this is because *free* parking downtown is relatively scarce, when compared to everywhere else in suburbia, and that parking is somewhat slightly further away from their destination than they are used to. This minor inconvenience imposed upon drivers is so alien from their usual day-to-day travels (if they don't visit downtown regularly) that it is unthinkable to them, and obviously the City should be doing something to remedy that inconvenience immediately.

Meanwhile, those of us who choose to use alternative forms of transportation put up with greater inconveniences regularly: long waits for buses, unsafe streets for bikes and pedestrians, a lack of bicycle parking, the list goes on. This is transportation inequity in action.