Streetsblog USA

The newest tool for doctors in the fight against obesity? That's right: Bike-share.

The final spot in the "Elite Eight" of parking craters is riding on this match. Either Grand Rapids, Michigan, or Salt Lake City, Utah, will move on to the second round of Parking Madness, Streetsblog's annual contest for eternal parking infamy.

The contenders in today's Parking Madness competition prove parking craters can happen anywhere, even in progressive metro areas where the regional economy is booming and transit is a solid travel option.

It was a dark and stormy day in San Francisco and Jeff Wood stayed dry in Woonerf studios, recording the Talking Headways podcast with co-host Tanya Snyder, who was bitter that days after the spring equinox, Washington, DC, was getting hit with another snowstorm.

We're seeing all sorts of parking craters as the 2014 Parking Madness tournament rolls on: pockmarked craters, endless abysses, deep caverns. Excess parking in cities takes many forms. And so we ask you to help us judge which is the worst, using the only method that can be applied consistently across all parking craters -- online polling.

Here's the rosy scenario of a future where cars drive themselves: Instead of owning cars, people will summon autonomous vehicles, hop in, and head to their destination. With fewer cars to be stored, parking lots and garages will give way to development, eventually bringing down the cost of housing in tight markets through increased supply. Pressure to expand roads will ease, as vehicle-to-vehicle technology allows more cars to use the same road space. Traffic violence will become a thing of the past as vehicles communicate instantly with each other and the world around them.

We're halfway through the first round of the 2014 Parking Madness tournament, with Kansas City, Detroit, Chicago, and Jacksonville having advanced to the next round.

Tony Dutzik is a senior policy analyst with the Frontier Group.

It's an intra-Missouri battle today in the fourth match-up of Parking Madness, Streetsblog's annual hunt for the worst parking craters in North America.