Parklets are symptomatic of Seattle’s anti-car bias

This week we’ve seen a number of stories about how hard it is to drive in this city. The Seattle Times took note that parking spots are going extinct, as the city is taking away hundreds of spots to build tons of bike lanes only 5 percent of Seattleites use to commute.

We learned from KING 5 how apartments are being built around town that don’t provide enough parking to accommodate the residents.

Last week, in an interview with Linda Byron, Seattle Department of Transportation Director Scott Kubly was asked, “Is it anti-car?”

“Not, not at all. I think it’s pro-choice. It’s allowing people to pick the mode that works best for them for the trip they’re making,” said Kubly.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray was asked, “Is Seattle waging a war on cars?”

“Absolutely not,” responded Murray. “I think we, in the last 14 months that I’ve been mayor, have stepped back trying to make sure that all modes work.”

If you dare try to drive around Seattle – whether you’re commuting to work or you’re driving in for an evening out at a nice restaurant, you know how much of a nightmare it is to drive here.

The traffic is a mess. But what’s worse, you can’t find a parking spot. And when you can find a spot, it’s remarkably expensive. If you want to spend some time in Belltown, you can spend up to $15 for three hours. If you want to spend all day shopping in Seattle’s retail core, you might spend as much as $30 on parking.

Yet, the SDOT director said, “Something like a quarter of all of the traffic congestion in the city is people cruising for parking – looking for parking.”

The city sent out a notice Friday that it created even more “parklets,” – mini parks that basically have benches to sit in (while you’re getting rained on).

They created six parklets on Queen Anne – killing parking spots.

Parklets aren’t useful. SDOT claims they are, but they’re not. I don’t know many people who will bring a book to a parklet in the rain and hang out and read.

It seems so silly and insensitive to drivers who have a legitimate beef.

Kubly is a bike activist, which is why Mayor Murray installed him. He doesn’t like cars. When people take issue with disappearing city parking, he has responded, “There is parking available downtown in garages.”

He said there are 8,000 available spots, which is disingenuous because these are spots in commercial garages and the issue has to do with disappearing city parking. Oh, and by the way, of those 8,000 spots, he’s apparently also including reserved spots you can’t actually use and about 2,000 valet spots.

The problem is, the culture is so anti-car at SDOT and in the mayor’s office, they don’t realize their bias. I don’t know if they truly believe they are treating all modes of transportation equally, but if they do, can they point to anything that’s helping cars?

The anti-car activists point to Bertha, which is silly because the viaduct had to come down and they had to do something. Bertha was just a dumb financial move, not a concession to cars.

Mercer remains a mess, if you can even get to it. They’re ripping up busy streets to install bike lanes a very small percentage of the population uses. SDOT is installing even more bus-only lanes on busy streets. They’re killing parking spots that are cheaper to use than commercial garages. How is that treating drivers equally?