Friday the “March Madness” parking craters near transit contest started, with Sacramento matched against St. Louis. Unfortunately/fortunately, Sacramento was eliminated in the first round. Jim Adams submitted Sacramento, based on all the state parking lots around the Archives Plaza and 8th & O light rail stations. These parking lots are not dedicated to people using light rail, but instead are dedicated to people not using light rail, so this is not the same issue as parking at light rail stations. But the point is well taken, valuable property wasted on surface parking, for the benefit of people who have transit at the front door of their office, but choose instead to drive. These surface lots are free for state workers, though I am not sure whether the garages are or not.

Yes, the headline is intentional. We lost the competition, but we lose every day that we have excess, free parking in areas with good transit service.

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