The cover of today's Seattle Timesâin a piece officially titled "Parking violations bring in big bucks for the city of Seattle"âsays that the reason the city issues parking tickets is to make people stop driving:
"It's all part of Seattle's larger plan to discourage driving," they say.
It's not to generate revenue? It's not to pay the bills for the city? Whaaaaaaaat?
This is so inconceivably ludicrousâeven for the Seattle Times, which has been propagating a cars-vs.-bikes debate and fighting for cars like they're an endangered speciesâthat even folks who normally cozy up with the Seattle Times had to set the abacus straight. Jon Scholes, vice president of advocacy for the Downtown Seattle Association, sent the paper a letter that is now posted (with permission) on the mayor's blog:
Iâve got to come to the Cityâs defense in regards to your story this morning on parking fines. The characterization that the âgoalâ of the Cityâs parking enforcement program is to âdiscourage drivingâ is entirely inaccurate as is the implication that parking Downtown would be easier to find and more plentiful if the City didnât enforce parking rules (or were less effective in enforcing the rules)....
Without parking rules in place and fines to enforce those rules, drivers would have fewer opportunities to park on the street Downtown, not more.
Scholes continues to dismember this argument over here.