For the past three years, I’ve taken a relatively new mass transit leg to work. This requires a drive to what’s basically a park-and-ride.
However, in the past three years, the parking has been filling up earlier and earlier. In the beginning (when the leg was, remember, relatively new), I could park at a little past 8 AM with plenty of parking available. Now I have to arrive at no later than 7:10 AM, and it’s gotten noticeably worse just in the past few weeks (although I suspect that it being autumn, and a large-ish public high school being in walking distance of one of the stops on this leg, is to blame).
My options are other park-and-rides closer to my home (which I suspect fill up just as fast, with the added inconvenience of having to take gambles experimenting when to arrive) and driving (fighting traffic to downtown and STILL having to take a bus if I want to park on a street for free), since unfortunately, the closest bus to my apartment is too sparse and ends too early in the evening to be useful.
So my question is, does this kind of situation usually hit some kind of equilibrium, where the parking finds a relatively stable time to fill up (as people like me get frustrated)? If so, when do you usually find this happens (as in time)?
So from my experience what happens is that the lots fill up and then the transit commission starts applying for permission for expanded parking. 10 years later they build a new lot or an elevated parking structure which is now sufficient parking for the traffic that existed when it was requested. By the time it’s built it’s already too small of a capacity for the current requirements.
In my area it already so built up that there’s no more room for additional parking and no way is the town gonna spring for a structure. I suppose a private form could be enticed to build a structure but the cost of parking would likely go up significantly.
The result is that the stop I once used and could get a parking space at 8:00, now fills up by 6:30 as people simply leave earlier and earlier to get a parking space.
My only resolution has been to use another, less popular stop (in a less well-off neighborhood where some people would worry about comming home late and walking to the car in the dark).
The subway Park ‘n’ Ride near my house started charging once they reached maximum saturation. That drove some people to find alternative (cheaper) parking nearby and it thinned things out considerably.
I know. My question was, will it keep getting earlier and earlier until it happens? Will the parking keep going until it fills up at 5 AM? 3 AM? 10 the previous night? When does it stop where you are? (Oh, another wrinkle: this line also serves the airport, which is also unfortunate for the parking situation.)
Aaaand the lot fills up completely three minutes before my old usual time - at which time, a month ago, there would’ve been maybe 15 or so spaces left.
Like I said, I’m starting to get more and more sure that school starting again is to blame.
I’m looking into the bus, but the schedule’s a lot more restrictive because of the bus that takes me right to the block with my apartment complex (winter’s coming, y’know). OTOH, I get to get up a whole half hour later. Hmmm. I just wish it were easier to check out morning parking conditions at other places without risking me being late for work if they’re full…
Yeah, you’re in a pickle. All I can say is either get there earler and earlier untill you figure out what time works best, or take a day off and do some scouting.
You could leave your car there, ride a bike, and store it in your car while at work. That’s what all the other people parking there are doing.
Do they check for cars that are there for weeks or months and tow them eventually? Or could there be abandoned cars clogging up a dozen spots?
Ordinarily I’d chalk up any short term changes to the season (e.g. it’s getting cooler, school’s in, etc.), but if there’s year-over-year change as well, who can say where or when it’ll end?
Since, as I said, this particular line directly serves the airport, I’m pretty sure they do check, although I’m equally sure there are plenty of people who use the lot as free airport parking.
Like I said, I have several options; it’s just hard to check on them and figure out what’s best, especially in terms of parking, and with that damn bus schedule (halve my lunch break to catch an earlier bus, or just lop off 10 minutes, but arrive only five minutes before the last bus of the night on my apartment route and risk missing it?).
Oh, yeah, and now that I’ve been using my iPad to while away my commute, I also have to think of personal and property safety. (Not that it’d make a difference in terms of electronic devices; I thought of this because of the stories in the media about smartphone thefts…)
I could also be businesses using the transit lot as their parking. There is a very popular bar in Kansas City called The Well, and they have virtually no parking of their own, and their customers park in the bus parking lot every day. I have no idea how they were even allowed to get an occupancy license, but I guess there are no requirements in Kansas City equating customers to parking spaces.
I’d love to see the KCATA have someone monitor that lot some night and tow every last bar customer.
You’re right…weather, school, holidays, gas prices, economic factors all contribute. The quesion becomse not if it reaches equilibrium, but if it reaches ENOUGH equilibrium. If it’s full at 7:10, then reset your schedule to 6:40…parking is easier, but you also get the improvements of an emptier train…
I just remembered that I get up an hour later on Fridays because I drive down to the city so my car can be near my friend’s apartment for game night (parking’s free on the street, and I can take the bus to the office in less than 20 minutes). Maybe I’ll use that time to investigate my other options over the course of a couple of weeks.
At least then I’ll know what I’m up against. I’m still not 100% sure what my best course is. At least with said other options, they seem slightly more likely to have reached that equilibrium (though of course I can’t be sure).
See, this is what I don’t get. Transit advocates insist that taking the bus is supposed to liberate us from being “trapped in our cars”, but instead it adds at least an hour-and-a-half to the work day. Perhaps someone can help me understand how this is liberating.
When you’re in your car, you have to drive. That 90 minute addition can be devoted to a bunch of things the commuter can’t do…reading, sleeping, working, etc.
In my case, lightrail is extremely predictable. It takes the same amount of time to get to work in the sunlight as it does in the snowstorm.
It’s also quite a saving in gas, mileage, wear, etc. on your vehicle.
I’d guess gas prices and destination parking prices have something to do with this. Gas prices may go down, but I doubt the price of parking will ever decrease in most areas.
If one were truly bad at finding parking in Denver, my commute would cost:
$14 parking, that’s $3500 a year.
22 miles at 20 mpg and $4 /gallon, two ways: $8.80 a day $2200 a year
Incremental increases in insurance due to driving 11,000 miles a year, just to commute
Having to focus and deal with paying attention every single mile.
Now, if you’re good at parking, that drops to $5-$6 a day, saving $2000 a year.
To compare apples to apples, I pay 72 a month for an ecopass, and drive 6 miles, one way to the park and ride: $2.81 a day in gas, 3000 miles a year. for a total annual cost of $1566…vs $3700, stress and wear.
On the third hand, I found a free parking spot, my motorcycle gets 50 mpg, I enjoy the hell out of riding it, and that would cost about $440 a year, if I could ride every single day.
