Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In

We've got two transit station parking craters in today's matchup, the fifth contest in Streetsblog's 2018 Parking Madness tournament.

Houston, Lansing, and Providence have advanced to round two so far, with voting still open in Friday's Greenville vs. Portland car storage slugfest.

Today's contest is a sad display of unfulfilled walkability, with one parking crater smack in the center of Washington, DC, and one in an East Bay suburb served by BART.

Washington, D.C.

DC_crater

This spot was nominated by (drumroll...) Vox co-founder Matt Yglesias, who says he's "obsessed with this in DC because it’s right in the city core."

The parking lot around the Capitol South Metro station is the one Yglesias singled out. In the original spirit of the term "parking crater," it forms a visible depression in the urban fabric. We pulled back the lens in this view since there are more parking lots nearby, and because we want to show the proximity of the nation's most hallowed institutions.

Funnily enough, the area just out of frame north of the Capitol competed in Parking Madness two years ago. Some kind of metaphor.

Fremont

fremont_bart

This right here is the area around the BART station in Fremont, California. You can make out the station toward the top of the frame. While BART offers direct service to Oakland and San Francisco from here, the station isn't exactly anchoring a walkable neighborhood.

All that surface parking by a rapid transit station is all the more aggravating in light of California's severe housing crisis. The Fremont station is the latest in a long line of BART stations to compete in Parking Madness, including West Dublin/PleasantonWalnut Creek, and El Cerrito. Instead of acre after acre of asphalt, how many thousands of people could be living within walking distance of these four stations?

Without further ado, it's time to vote.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Wednesday’s Headlines Are Going Broke

Americans are bankrupting themselves paying for depreciating assets that they mostly drive short distances, when an e-bike would do just as well.

June 4, 2025

Campus Bike Programs Are The Next Big Student Movement

Here are a few of the student leaders across America who are promoting cycling on their campuses.

June 4, 2025

Commentary: Illinois’s Transit Funding Flop Is a Cautionary Tale

Not funding transit agencies' basic operating needs is a political loser in any state.

June 3, 2025

Car Harms Series: NYC’s ‘Gridlock Sam’ Says We Have Lost Our Lives to the Automobile

Take it from the former head of New York's Department of Traffic: If we restore valuable public space to the people, the result will be a healthier, happier, and more humane city.

June 3, 2025
See all posts