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> One solution that’s not on the table: more parking. BART doesn’t have land or money to build new structures or lots, which cost $20,000 to $30,000 a space. Th
by wahern 8y ago
> One solution that’s not on the table: more parking. BART doesn’t have land or money to build new structures or lots, which cost $20,000 to $30,000 a space. The planned surface lot at Antioch Station, scheduled to open next year with 850 spaces at a cost of $16.4 million, will likely be BART’s last parking expansion.
Some of those waitlists are 2,000-3,000 long. They could easily charge an extra $200/month, so about $300/month. If they built 850 additional dedicated spaces, then including the existing allotment that'd be about 1000 * $300 * 12 -> $3,600,000/year. More spaces could probably pay for themselves, and that's before considering other improvements, like apartment buildings. Or they could always just raise prices and use the revenue for improvements elsewhere if construction costs don't pencil out.
This demand is a good thing. The existence of the black market is a huge signal that they're needlessly forgoing revenue and that they're not really facing any hard decisions, just their own indecision.
The City of San Francisco owns several large parking garages downtown. Over the past few years monthly prices have about doubled, I think, from about ~$200 to ~$400. That put a monthly permit beyond what I was willing to pay, but I'm glad they raised prices. Increasing revenue is a necessary, if far from sufficient, step to improving transit more generally.
- jelliclesfarm 8y agoI am not sure it’s a good thing. They are taking out parking garages to build apartments in San Francisco. All over the world, public transport works. We just can’t seem to hack it in the Bay Area. Where it is needed most.. Car parks are not a solution. This will only increase traffic gridlocks which is already bleeding our time. Public transport is a system of multi tiered transit solutions. Since trains don’t pick you up from your home, there is a need for intra city public mass transit to get you from home to train stations or bus stations or ferry stations. Personally I think it’s worth thinking about underground or maglevs that is dedicated to intra city transit while surface roads and freeways can be inter city. This would take the pressure off. Charging for public transport parking means it’s a way to make traveling more expensive. This is already true for tolls and over bridges. By making it expensive for cars to cross county lines, cities can become walled gardens. Which is not necessarily a bad thing if that’s what the city wants(Marin is a good example of how tolls thin and channel who can enter their enclaves due to the high tolls and also monitored entrances/exits) ..but free movement of public transport between cities(due to concentration of scattered work hubs from residential sprawl)should not include added high barriers like limited and expensive parking.