New Ideas for Blossoms' Bottleneck

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 24, 2008

Ah, the cherry blossoms: fluffy, pink flowers, picnics under the pastel tree canopy, fisticuffs in the parking lot.

Yes, the time when spring is in the air and a million people descend on the Tidal Basin to celebrate is a time when road rage blossoms as well.

Parking has never been easy in Washington, and even though the National Park Service annually begs blossom viewers to use Metro, bicycle or park at a satellite lot, it seems that most everyone driving to the Tidal Basin is confident that they will win the lottery of blossom parking: one of the 180 spots in the tiny lot next to the paddle-boat dock.

"Oh, the gridlock. The traffic. Everyone goes right for that lot," said National Park Service spokesman Bill Line.

The lot has caused countless headaches because it is so small and so many people head straight for it, causing gridlock that extends downtown in one direction and toward Virginia in the other. Horns honk, tempers flare and even fights erupt.

This year, officials are trying something altogether different at that embattled space: They're simply getting rid of it.

"That parking lot will be closed. Nobody is going to get in there," Line said.

Instead, the lot will have an information trailer, food stands, gift and book tents, portable restrooms and a first-aid area, Line said. Officials are thinking sushi, egg rolls, maybe even a sake garden next to the welcome trailer.

One blossom viewer, miffed by the closing, quipped online that the trailer could be renamed "Welcome to No Parking."

The Park Service has been bombarded with similar complaints, always hearing: "You've got to do something about the gridlock," Line said.

So this year, they are trying to reroute the traffic to Hains Point, toward the now-barren area where the "Awakening" statue used to be before it was moved to the National Harbor development.

The largest number of parking spaces will be available on Hains Point, where 800 free spots are available along Ohio Drive SW and a free "Blossom Shuttle" will take people to and from the Tidal Basin. The Park Service also has designated several parking areas for disabled visitors.

The shuttle will circulate daily beginning Friday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., between the parking area and the Tidal Basin. It will repeat the route every 20 to 30 minutes, with 11 stops along the way. But Park Service officials are also hoping that some tourists will simply stay put on Hains Point.

"There are 2,500 additional cherry trees on Hains Point. To allow people the belief that the Tidal Basin is the one and only place to see good cherry trees is just wrong," Line said. "If you don't like the crowds and you don't like the little kids running around, you can get on a Tourmobile bus and go to Hains Point and see almost as many cherry blossoms."

On Easter weekend, when the trees were barely beginning to blush, the rush was already on at the Tidal Basin parking lot, which will close Wednesday morning.

The minivans circled; the SUVs crept. Around and around the procession went, a line of cars that inched through the one-way parking lot, stopping and starting, stalking those who looked as if they were heading back to their car.

Narayanu Moola got one of the coveted spots, just as the rain was beginning to fall Saturday. Because the blossoms hadn't peaked yet and the rain was coming, he took his chances with the lot.

"It wasn't so bad today," Moola said, after arriving from Herndon and circling several times. But he's been burned before at the lot.

"Once I drove around for an hour," he said. For the first couple of years that he brought his two sons and wife to see the blossoms, they gritted their teeth and battled it out for a spot in the lot. But then the family gave up and began parking at Hains Point and walking.

"A shuttle on Hains Point, now that will be a good idea," he said.

The parking lot will be closed from Wednesday until April 15, just a little longer than the festival's run from Saturday through April 13. Also new this year are a daily visit by Paddles the Beaver, a larger-than-life-size mascot who will scamper about the Tidal Basin, reminding blossom watchers not to harm the trees; a Bloomin' Junior Ranger tent at the Tidal Basin parking lot, which will have crafts and activities for children; and bicycle valet services behind the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and on 15th Street NW between Constitution Avenue and Madison Drive.