This is it, the final match of the Parking Madness 2018 tournament. The winner will be bestowed with the Golden Crater, eternal shame, and, hopefully, a kick in the pants to fix its sad, sad parking crater.
Separating themselves from this year's pack of 16 parking-ravaged urban spaces are Hicksville, New York, and Lansing, Michigan.
It's a contest between two classic parking crater types: the wasted potential of a park-and-ride rail station, in Hicksville, versus the state capitol complex in downtown Lansing, where parking perks have turned what should be a civic landmark into a glorified office park.
Hicksville
When you step off a train at the Long Island Railroad station in Hicksville, it's not easy to walk anywhere without first traversing a parking lot.
Only about 13 percent of the 100 acres surrounding this station is occupied by buildings, according to Ryan Coyne, a member of the planning committee for Hicksville’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative. What buildings do exist are mainly single family housing and suburban-style retail with tons of car storage. It's not the walkable environment that a regional rail station should anchor.
The good news is that the station area is slated for some improvements -- a redesigned station, pedestrian upgrades on surface streets, and hundreds of new apartments in development within walking distance of the train, according to Coyne.
Lansing
Take in the area around the Michigan state capitol in downtown Lansing and try to feel something other than despair.
Notice how empty the lots are even in broad daylight. Presumably this Google satellite shot was taken on a weekend, when the state workers don't drive in and no one else has a reason to be here.
In that respect, Lansing is like a lot of Midwestern downtowns. People drive in for work and drive out at the end of the day. And they leave behind a ghost town.
Not only do these parking lots suck the life out of Lansing, they're also a drain on the city's fiscal resources and its ability to fund public services, because while these parking lots for state employees may be occupying prime real estate, none are producing any tax revenue.
Voting will be open until Thursday at midnight eastern time, and we'll present the award to the champion on Friday. May the worst crater win!
Read More:
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog USA
Friday’s Headlines Got Served
Another day, another GOP lawsuit trying to overturn a Biden administration climate change rule.
Disabled People Are Dying in America’s Crosswalks — But We’re Not Counting Them
The data on traffic fatalities and injuries doesn’t account for their needs or even count them. Better data would enable better solutions.
Talking Headways Podcast: Charging Up Transportation
This week, we talk to the great Gabe Klein, executive director of President Biden's Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (and a former Streetsblog board member), about curbside electrification.
Why Does the Vision Zero Movement Stop At the Edge of the Road?
U.S. car crash deaths are nearly 10 percent higher if you count collisions that happen just outside the right of way. So why don't off-road deaths get more air time among advocates?
Donald Shoup: Here’s a Parking Policy That Works for the People
Free parking has a veneer of equality, but it is unfair. Here's a proposal from America's leading parking academic that could make it more equitable.
