A recent conversation with an expert on parking policy delved into the complexities of attempting to improve transportation infrastructure in Arlington.
Efforts now underway in Arlington are helping to break a century-old national focus on the automobile as primary, and sometimes lone, transportation option, said Henry Grabar, author of “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World.”
With the emergence of the automobile starting by the 1920s, “parking gets baked into the zoning code in just about every jurisdiction, [and] this proves to be a self-perpetuating decision,” Grabar said at a Tuesday program sponsored by Friends of the Arlington Public Library.
The discussion with Melissa McMahon, parking and curbspace manager for the county government’s Department of Environmental Services, drew on research from Grabar’s 2023 book of the same name.
In some ways, Grabar said, the public’s views on parking availability have evolved little in the past century.
“Everybody would rather park at the curb than in a garage,” he said. “You need a system to distribute this very limited resource.”
And for all the talk of being a transit-friendly community, the author suggested that, on balance, people would rather drive — until impediments are put in their way.
“The reality is, nobody’s going to use transit if it’s still easy and free to park,” he said. “The thing that drives people to take the trouble to walk somewhere and get on a train with a bunch of people and then walk to their destination is the fact that the parking is limited.”
The county government’s performance-parking pilot is one way local leaders are trying to manage the availability of metered spaces in urban corridors.
As part of the pilot, which began in 2023 and is funded by the Virginia Department of Transportation, sensors have been placed under about 4,500 spaces in high-traffic areas. They measure the usage during peak periods.
“Where use has been up over 80%, sometimes 90% or more, we’ve raised the price incrementally on a quarterly basis for the last year and a half,” McMahon said.
On the flip side, prices have been lowered in areas where usage is under 40%.
Under the initiative, parking costs also can vary by time of day. Rates range from 75 cents to $4.75 per hour, with the allowable time limit depending on location.
Arlington officials are accepting public comment through Oct. 5 on the performance-parking pilot. The Tuesday author talk was preceded by a community-engagement session on the topic at the library.
McMahon said county leaders have worked hard to provide tools for those seeking available spaces for parking.
“We’ve developed apps to help you find it, even navigate you to an open space,” she said.
But those high-tech options often run into entrenched human behavior, Grabar said research showed.
People don’t pay attention to parking needs when driving to a location, and “then when you arrive there, it just hits you like a ton of bricks,” Grabar said.
“That’s one reason people get so emotional about it,” he said. “It feels like a trick that’s been played on you at the end of your trip. You’ve gotten to where you’re going, and suddenly you find you can’t get out of the car. It forces us to think on our feet a little bit. Everyone has their own strategy.”
Since March 2024, for instance, Arlington County has gradually increased the cost of parking in heavily trafficked areas through its new “performance parking” program.
Despite parking costs more than doubling in some places, county data shows a minimal impact on drivers’ actions between March, April and May of 2024 and the same three months this year.
In areas where prices increased, the average occupancy rate dropped by just 2.5%. By comparison, in areas where prices stayed the same or decreased, occupancy fell by 2.2% during the same period.
In fairness, a lot of Arlington drivers aren’t paying for the full cost of parking anyway. Between March 2024 and July 2025, compliance with metered rates hovered between 35% and 40%, county data shows.
Compliance rose to over 50% for drivers who stayed at a spot between one and two hours, but fell below 20% if a driver stayed at a spot for less than 15 minutes.
Compliance rates were particularly low — below 15% — for accessible parking spots.
Grabar’s discussion waded into a number of locally contentious items, including how much parking should be provided for new development.
The speaker noted that above-ground parking structures can cost around $50,000 to $60,000 per space, while underground garages can top $100,000. “And then people wonder why housing is so expensive,” he said.
The question of residential parking zones also came up. One audience member called these “a system where the wealthy neighborhoods can keep people out because they feel like they own every street within their neighborhood.”
“It seems not fair,” she said.
In the 1970s, the Arlington government fought and won a landmark ruling allowing municipalities to create zoning districts where parking was restricted to those who lived in the neighborhood.
The county’s first district, established in 1972 in Aurora Highlands, aimed to keep neighborhood streets from being overrun by office workers from nearby Crystal City. It restricted parking during the weekday hours.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the restricted-parking zone violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision, paving the way for addition residential-parking zones across Arlington and the nation.
While judged to be constitutional, the restricted parking zones continue to have both fans and foes.
“It remains a sensitive topic for residents, though, for sure, and for staff and elected officials to this day,” McMahon said.
During the hourlong program, Grabar seemed to applaud Arlington’s willingness to try different parking strategies, even if not all proved successful.
“Parking is just something you can mess with — experiment with — until you get it right,” he said. “I think that’s appealing.”
Given the transience of the local area, the county is better positioned to encourage specific behavior from residents, Grabar said.
“One of the thing Arlington has going for it is lots of people move here every year, so you have a chance to get them at this moment of big life change … to shape people’s travel choices,” he said.
