City of Fort Lauderdale StreetsSmart: 2015 Transportation Summit—sending the wrong message

If you've never been to the Walkable West Palm Beach blog you should check it out some time. True, it's a bit too wonkish for some but if planning, walkability, bikability, complete streets, and New Urbanism interest you then this blog by Jesse Bailey should be on your list.

He lit up the organizers of the StreetSmart 2015 Summit and here's why. Guess what they're doing to entice people to attend?

Free parking passes for motor vehicles. 

I'm not kidding. But wish I was. Thankfully the organizers tweaked their message. What this indicates is really how much work is ahead of us to change public reliance on the motor vehicle, mostly cars. Here is an excerpt from Jesse Bailey's blog entry:

     The event is still giving free parking to all attendees, which subsidizes the driver while leaving the Tri-Rail user or the bus rider out of luck. This is the wrong market signal to send [emphasis added] and the leadership to change this condition has to come from the top levels of government. Just adding a subsidy for users who take public transportation would punish the person walking or biking. From a policy standpoint, I’d much prefer we just eliminate any transportation subsidies for these events altogether (“unbundling”) and let people make rational choices for themselves.
     I would hope this topic is discussed during the Summit. It’s not Fort Lauderdale’s fault so much as a shift in thinking that needs to happen in our region. Unbundling free parking benefits is one such “Shoupian” tactic that can and should be implemented by local governments throughout South Florida to lead by example.

Most of you wouldn't know what "Shoupian" means. The cliff note definition is "the high cost of free parking". Free parking is not free, folks. Somebody is paying for it.

But we'll save that for another time. Anyhow, great job Jesse Bailey!