Randy Simms just likes to be a cliché, conservative, populist mayor that doesn't spend money on anything. And as he is strategically situated as the Mayor of a City that can get away with it, it continues, unchecked...
But oftentimes, Park And Ride facilities are more of parking garages than just surface parking lots.
You can find some really innovative designs for parking garages which are towers on top of train stations where the elevator of the garage brings you right to the platform of the train. Obviously this is not relevant in our case, but these designs are always proven effective and surface-park and ride facilities are always the opposite because they become a wasteland of cars. In many ways though, a park and ride facility can function in many the same ways as a train station.
I have been thinking about this problem a lot lately, and I think that yes, metro-area park and rides are also needed, but a park and ride downtown would also be hugely beneficial.
In the map, purple rectangles would be park and ride facilities (keep in mind, I didn't put thought into location, I just found an opening on the downtown periphery), the white dotted line is a tram line, and the green circles are stops. This route is super short, they could have a couple trams and they could run constantly in a loop, more trams at rush hour. Trams here for historical reasons.
This could also be an opportunity to redevelop water street and/or restore water street and/or make water street complete. Example: they could remove parking on water street completely (or on one side), put two trams lines with their own right-of ways, vehicle traffic in one direction and a bike lane. At the same time, they could restore water street to it's original cobble-stone state which would be a huge appeal for tourists, they could also dip any utilities underground, they could ease the curbs more elegantly and install a better drainage system... haha, I realize that would go beyond the mandate of the park and ride facilities but I think both projects need to be visited sooner or later and in this case, two birds and one stone.
And jus'sayin': the fact that our historic water street is asphalt is a disgrace... cobble stones really aren't a huge expense when compared with longevity, maintenance and aesthetic considerations.