Okay, a day late, but a thread about Park N’ Ride lots - subtitle “Why Brian doesn’t think commuter parking belongs in the City of Charlottesville”.

First, it’s a bad use of limited land area. Parking doesn’t help house people, and it doesn’t generate revenue.

Second - and I really thought this was obvious - you put commuter lots near where people live, not near where they work. The latter is satellite parking.

I keep seeing the idea of putting lots on the edge of the City to capture commuters as they drive into the City.

Do you really think there’s a large number of drivers that will complete the lion’s share of their commute, only to park at the City limits and then ride a bus the last mile?

Would you?

For those that know Northern Virginia, this is like driving from Prince William County to Crystal City, and then parking and hopping on a bus to go to the Pentagon, if the Pentagon had easily available parking.

Some people last night mentioned the UVA Hospital situation, and it proves my point. That’s the situation where satellite parking will happen. We’d have to replicate the supply limitation/cost to park currently at the Hospital in the downtown area.

A quick word on the parking situation downtown - I can drive downtown at 8 and park all day for free a 1/4 mile walk from City Hall. In my opinion, that is not indicative of a parking shortage.

As I said last night, most parking and traffic complaints are rooted in a changing condition. Your commute taking 5 minutes longer than it used to is not cause to add a alone on your route. Set your alarm 5 minutes earlier.

Can’t park where you’re used to parking? Get there earlier or walk a bit further. Providing free convenient car storage is not an essential governmental function.

So, until we have $10/hr parking costs downtown, I don’t want to hear about commuter parking lots in the City.

Put them in the County.