[Photo by Flickr user thisisbossi]
Somehow, D.C. was named only the seventh worst city in the United States for parking a vehicle. Perhaps we have things like Honolulu's $42/day parking garages and Oakland's insanely high rate of car theft to thank for that. Still, D.C. drivers can now feel vindicated that there has actually been a study to demonstrate why parking in D.C. sucks.
Shockingly, D.C. comes out looking almost inexpensive when daily parking rates in garages. An average of $19/day sounds lousy, but Collier International's 2012 parking study finds that cities like Honolulu, Chicago and New York have it much worse. Still, that unreserved monthly parking averages to $270/month certainly stings a bit.
Then there's the matter of car thefts and parking tickets and that's where things get worse. Admittedly, the statistic that D.C. has 60.17% more motor vehicle thefts per capita than the national average is almost four years old. It's possible that's gone down. However, the number of parking tickets has almost certainly gone up. D.C. collected $92.6 million in parking tickets in 2011 and that was prior to the changes determining when and where long non-residents were allowed to park on particular streets. In fact, at last year's Cherry Blossom Festival alone the parking authority issued 155,636 tickets. No wonder new apartment complexes suddenly want to go carless.
· Worst Cities for Parking Your Car [NerdWallet]
· Cherry blossoms, tourists and parking tickets [WaPo]
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