Evening star., 1947-01-28
Agency 10 Offer
3-point Plan
On DEP Parking
Buses PIoy Port in
z Proposals Drofted
By Howot's Unit

A three-point plan to help WASH
ington solve its parking problem
quickly is in the offlng.
The program was disclosed at an
American Automobile Association
forum on the parking problem last
night by P. Y. K. Howat, chairman
of the city's Motor Vehicle Parking
Agency. It would work as follows:
/. A system of express buses on
express streets would be put in effect
to tempt workers and shoppers to
use mass transportation.
2. Then enough off-street parking
garages would be built downtown to
take care of the driver who wants to
park only short time. Private
investors would build them, after
the parking agency had helped them
get the land.
Main Point In Report.
3. Off-street parking areas at the
outskirts of the downtown section
would be set aside for those who
want to park all day. They would
be run by transit companies. The
companies would charge one price
for parking and shuttle bus ride to
and from the downtown area.
These, MIR. Howat said, would be
the main points Of his agencys re-
port on Washington parking, to be
made public in about month. More
than years work has gone into the
report, he said.
To speed the program, he said,
the parking agency soon will ask the
Commissioners to help it get its land
buying and disposal powers lib
eralized.
The agency can get land for park
ing condemned now, he said, but it
can only lease it to private builders
of parking garages and lot operators.
1t needs to be able to sell land as
we'll as lease it, he added. Contracts
for sale of the land would contain
clauses forcing the buyer to use the
land for parking.
Transit Sites Studied.
The Capital Transit Co. now is
studying two sites at the edge of
the downtown section with the idea
of giving the public parking coupled
with shuttle bus service, he disclosed.
E. D. Merrill, transit company
president and member of the six
man forum panel, said after the
meeting he had in mind charging
the public from Is to IS cents day
for this service. The price can't be
set until the capacity of the park
ing lots is known, he said,.
In Baltimore, he explained, the
transit company loses money on a
250-car lot a mile from the down.
town section. TRANSIT experts in
Detroit tell him, he said, lot that
would hold 800 cars would mean
cheaper rates and better break
for the transit company.
49, Held Job Of Business.
X The parking agency's plans and
Mr.. Merrill's explanation followed an
hour and half of panel discussion.
Mr.. Howat acted as moderator. Be-
sides Mr.. Merrill, other panel men,
bers were: D. Grant Mickle, traffic
engineer of the Automotive Safety
Foundation; District Highway Di-
rector H. G. Whitehurst, Mark Lans-
burgh, member Of the Motor Vehicle
Parking Agency; Charles H. Tomp-
kins, president of the Charles H.
Thompkins Co., which has built and
owns number of parking garages,
and Burton w. Marsh, director of
the AAA Traffic Engineering and
Safety Department.
The panel agreed that it was the
job of private business to provide
parking. But, the speakers said, the
leadership of some public agency is
needed as well as Government help
in buying land.
Mr.. Howat said one of his agency's
pet fringe" parking plans had fall
en through-one which the transit
company would have been willing to
operate. He referred, he said, to
a plan to use the north parking lot
of the Pentagon. A legal snar over
what would be the status of the land
if private business operated on it
prevents its use, he explained,