Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In

It's Parking Madness season at Streetsblog, and if you're just joining us, this year's competition is all about how we sabotage transit by surrounding stations with huge fields of parking.

On Friday, we kicked things off with a match between transit station areas in St. Louis and Sacramento, with St. Louis advancing.

Today, first round action continues as Toronto takes on the Boston suburb of Medford.

Toronto -- Kennedy Station

Screen Shot 2017-03-13 at 1.37.18 PM

Reader Ian Wood submitted the parking lots around Kennedy Station, which is the fifth busiest subway station in Toronto, according to Wikipedia.

The city has spent the last 25 years infilling parking lots like mad, and even its inner suburbs have seen wave after wave of densification.  (No city outside Asia has built more condos this century).

But Toronto is a young city, with a postwar rail system. While Toronto's GO Transit is one of North America's larger commuter rail stations, from the beginning it was designed as a car-to-train model, and most stations are surrounded by enormous parking lots, usually in the middle of highways and industrial areas.

This area is already surrounded by schools, housing, and job centres -- and more is coming. But the subway station remains an odd crater in the middle of it.

Definitely the kind of space that would make Donald Shoup cry.

Medford, Massachusetts -- Wellington T Station

Malden Parking Crater


An anonymous reader submitted this site outside Boston. Despite the picturesque setting by the Malden and Mystic rivers, the Wellington T station is hemmed in on all sides:

The station is sandwiched between a massive parking lot, a major highway and a train maintenance yard. There is also a parking garage just west of the station. I am not sure how anyone from the neighborhoods north get to this station on foot/bike.

The polls are open until Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

parking_madness_2017

Correction: This post originally said that Wellington T stop was in Malden, Mass. It's in Medford. 

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Wednesday’s Headlines Welcome Our Robot Overlords

The robotaxi field is growing, but with buyouts and now possibly layoffs at the U.S. DOT, will anyone be left to regulate them?

July 30, 2025

Shifting Gears to Urban Delivery to Bikes

Bikes can revolutionize delivery in urban areas. A new report outlines how policymakers can spur them in their communities.

July 30, 2025

Tuesday’s Headlines Reel in the Years

Republicans continue to roll back the Biden administration's legacy, most recently ending the DOT's Neighborhood Access and Equity program.

July 29, 2025

What Will It Take To Give Victims and Advocates a Voice at US DOT?

A new bill would put a dedicated "roadway safety advocate" in the halls of US DOT — and you can support it right now.

July 29, 2025

Monday’s Headlines E-Biking Away

There's a million destinations if we had a little help from the government to afford to buy an e-bike.

July 28, 2025

How Trump is Exploiting a Very Real Trucking Safety Concern to Crack Down on Immigrants

The Trump administration will crack down on truck drivers who don't speak English and the people who give them licenses. Some advocates say that anti-immigrant spin is distracting much broader safety problems that deserve bipartisan support.

July 28, 2025
See all posts