This week D.C. launched a new online parking portal, claiming to make visitor parking "easier, safer and more efficient" by allowing residents to print out their own parking permits for visitors.
As a veteran user of D.C.'s visitor parking passes — from visiting relatives to visiting contractors — I can attest the new system is indeed easier. I had the opportunity to use it this morning, when someone working on our house called minutes before arriving and needed to park.
Under the old visitor parking system, anyone living in a neighborhood with resident-only parking could apply for a free visitor placard, good for a year, to be used on any vehicle. It worked fine, as long as you didn't lose the pass under a stack of unopened mail, lend it to a guest who forgot to return it, or forget to apply for a new one. In other words, it did not work well for me.
I wasn't the only one. "No One Is Happy About DDOT's New Visitor Parking Pass Program," read the DCist headline when the system was launched citywide in 2013. It was criticized for being easy to misuse — there were reports of rampant abuse of the system. NBC4 caught a man on camera hawking visitor parking permits downtown for $30 apiece. Residents complained their neighbors sold visitor placards to out-of-town commuters, making it harder for actual residents to find parking.
In addition to the yearly visitor pass, there was also an option to get a temporary, two-week parking permit for a particular vehicle. You could get these at a local police station. When I first did this, I thought I had walked into the year 1943. The officer behind the desk at the old brick Fourth District Substation on Park Rd NW pulled out a giant dusty ledger book, peered at my drivers license, and manually took my information down (I half expected to wave away indoor cigarette smoke and catch a glimpse of a mysterious detective in a fedora and a trench coat).
The new system does away with the ledger books and yearly placards. Instead there is a website where you can print out a new parking pass for each visitor.
There is even — gasp! — a mobile app, available on iPhone and Android.
If you don't have a printer at home, you can print out a pass at a police station, public library, or DDOT kiosk. If you don't have a computer or smart phone, there is a 24-hour helpline available at 202-671-2631.
DDOT acknowledges the old system was subject to exploitation. The new digital system, the agency says, "will eliminate permit abuse and free up parking for residents and their visitors because it is license-plate-based."
The visitor parking system is available to all residents who live on blocks that require residential parking permits. Residents can permit one person to park for an unlimited amount of time, or allow multiple people to park simultaneously for up to 2,160 hours.
My test-run of the system this morning — under pressure from an approaching contractor van — was successful. It took a few minutes and a few frustrated clicks to figure out, but compared to a certain other recent D.C. government web portal, it was a breeze.
This story is from DCist.com, the local news website of WAMU.
