Car-sharing firms seek residential parking spots

Two car-rental firms have asked the District for permission to take over as many as 140 public curbside parking spaces — a plan that has some residents, already weary of the daily scramble for parking spots, grinding their gears and gritting their teeth.

“It’s been a pretty controversial topic around the area,” said Denis James, executive president of the Kalorama Citizens Association, which hosted a neighborhood meeting last night with city transportation officials and representatives from Flexcar and Zipcar, two firms that utilize smart-card technology to unlock rental vehicles, monitor usage and bill customers.

Both companies already operate in the District, but their fleets are parked mostly at Metro stations and in private lots. The expansion would put rental cars curbside in commercial and residential neighborhoods. The firms call the proposed 140 spaces, including 29 in Adams Morgan, a “wish list.”

City officials defend the program as a way to reduce the number of vehicles in the District.

“The point of the program is to reduce parking and traffic congestion in the neighborhood,” said Rick Rybeck, the deputy administrator of the D.C. Department of Transportation. Mr. Rybeck met last night with members of the Kalorama Citizens Association, the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance and representatives from Flexcar and Zipcar.

Many at the public meeting were furious about a plan that could hand over publicly owned residential and metered parking spaces to private, for-profit car-rental firms.

“We’re choking in Mount Pleasant,” said Laurie Collins, 52, who was skeptical about giving away parking spaces.

“I see more profit, more profit, more profit for the company,” she said.

Larry Carr, 61, who lives in Adams Morgan, said the car-sharing firms couldn’t prove that the presence of their fleets would reduce congestion.

“Unless you get rid of the same amount of cars, it’s going to take longer at night when it’s absolutely hideous,” he said.

“Many people are quite concerned, although a lot of us see that there is some benefit from car-sharing. We’re not against car-sharing, but the proposal is too open-ended,” Mr. James said.

Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, was at the meeting, and he said he supported the efforts of residents to protect residential parking spaces.

“We can find new spaces without taking precious RPPs” or residential parking permits, he said

Mr. Rybeck said that, given the public opposition, approval for the requested takeover of residential spaces was off the table — for now.

“Out west, people will kill you over water. In D.C., people will kill you over a parking space,” Mr. Rybeck said. “We know it’s a sensitive issue for neighborhoods that are congested. For that reason, particularly as we implement this program, we are going to be very reluctant to designate any residential permit parking spaces for car-sharing vehicles. But over time, that may change.”

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