The popularity of Sounder has tied downtown Puyallup into a bit of knot. Untying that knot will require some creativity in melding transit with an urban core – good practice for what the whole region will someday have to do.

The problem in Puyallup is not momentous, but it must be solved. Since Sound Transit built its Puyallup Station smack in the middle of the downtown business district, local merchants have been struggling for parking space they once took for granted.

The station has become the system’s busiest outside Seattle. Commuters have been delighted to leave their cars behind and take a relaxing, comfortable train ride to and from work. They’re driving into Puyallup from all over – even from Sumner, which has a station of its own. The trains fill up fast in Puyallup; if you live in the valley and want a seat, that’s the place to board.

Leaving cars behind is great for the highways and the environment. But in this case, it means that downtown Puyallup is stuck with a lot of cars. They get parked in the two lots at the station, which have 527 spaces, and two other lots leased from the City of Puyallup, which have a combined total of 153. These fill up fast and can’t accommodate everyone who wants to catch the train.

Puyallup’s historic business district is pedestrian-friendly with a distinctive small-town character. Many merchants aren’t happy to see the deluge of traffic headed for the station. Some are seeing their own cars crowded out by commuters.

One remedy would be a healthy-sized parking garage at the station. A garage would have been built had voters approved the Roads and Transit package last November; now the project awaits possible approval of a scaled-down package.

Sound Transit has already been pursuing a more elegant solution: satellite parking, a decentralized form of park-and-ride. The idea is to let workers park their cars outside the core and take a bus to the station. The bus gets the commuters to the train quickly and on time. There’s already a satellite parking center on South Hill and another in Bonney Lake (which takes people to Sumner Station).

Assuming the bus connection is fast and reliable, this works for everyone. Downtowns don’t get buried in parked cars, and commuters can leave their cars closer to home and not panic about finding a spot near the station before the train leaves.

If satellite parking lots are extended to the suburbs, train service will become more accessible and the reach of mass transit will be extended.

As one of the first small cities to get big-time transit service, Puyallup is a laboratory for other Puget Sound communities. Its parking solutions are probably going to be the region’s parking solutions.