Parking Madness 2017: Vote for the Worst 'Parking Craters' in the U.S.

Angie Schmitt kicked off the annual "Parking Madness" tournament on March 17, announcing that this year's highly-anticipated tournament will have a special focus: "transit stations engulfed by car storage."

Here Schmitt makes that case for why transit parking craters have a special place in the taxonomy of parking disasters:

Transit works best when people can walk to stations — more people will ride and fewer will drive. A moat of parking defeats the purpose and repels people on foot, but that is exactly what you’ll find at a shocking number of American transit stops.

The first matchup features the Richmond Heights Metrolink Station in St. Louis, paired up against the parking lots in downtown Sacramento with proximity to the State Capitol and two light rail stations. Only time will tell whether either of these examples persists through what promises to be a very tough field of competitors.