What the article doesn't address is that high parking prices in garages and lots lead to more and more people circling the block endlessly looking for the coveted metered spot... All the circling obviously contributes to congestion and pollution...
Today there are even fewer of those "coveted metered spots" available downtown. Today is National PARK(ing) Day, and Austin groups, like Save Our Springs Alliance, right, have turned metered parking spots throughout downtown into "mini parks" (if you can block out the whizzing noise of fast-moving and thick traffic). The 451 'Dillo stops outside of Whole Foods, and there you can visit three of the renegade "parks" (I checked--all three groups had paid the meter).
Here's Whole Foods' Oktoberfest-themed park, complete with a jam box playing Polka tunes. Across the street, the Girl Scouts Council of Central Texas had set up camp--literally--in their parking spot, and visitors could make S'mores over a Coleman camp stove. (But eat up before you jump back on the 'Dillo.)
