This just in from Othello Neighborhood Association Chair Jenna Egusa Walden:
TO: Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and Sound Transit
RE: Paying for Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) Permits
After a vigorous discussion with attendees, the Othello Neighborhood Association (ONA) membership voted on Jan. 27, 2009 to reject Sound Transit’s requirement that the community pay for restricted parking zone (RPZ) permits around the Othello Station.
ONA is concerned about parking impacts that are related to Sound Transit’s operation. ONA is the steward of the MLK@Holly (Othello) Street Neighborhood Plan. The community stated in the plan many years ago that that there will be a parking impact due to light rail operation and that it needed to be addressed. But having nearby residents pay for it is a misguided proposal.
The cost of the RPZ permits is the responsibility of Sound Transit (who is funded by the taxpayers). The Othello light rail station, along with many others throughout the region, will attract riders that do not live in the immediate station area. These potential riders will park their cars in the community, depriving residents the right to park in their own neighborhood. This is an impact to the community created by Sound Transit.
Furthermore, 29 established RPZ’s in Seattle are more than 30% paid for by major institutions such as Providence Hospital. In these cases, major institutions act as traffic generators that increase parking demand around each of them. A light rail station will act in a similar way.
A responsible resolution to this problem is for Sound Transit to provide free RPZ permits for residents in the restricted parking zones around each station area. Another un-addressed issue is the longer-term parking needs one would anticipate with a light rail leading to a major airport. Please visit online purchasing and printing options in order for visitors to pay for longer-term parking that is more efficient and convenient for all. We needn’t tow everyone if they want to stay for longer than four hours and they pay. Seattle has a reputation for being extremely tech-savvy and it would be great to see the city take advantage of that.
Since Sound Transit light rail operation is less than four months away, we request a timely response from SDOT & Sound Transit to our mitigation request.
The move jives with the position statement the Southeast District Council (SEDC) plans to vote on at next week’s meeting:
“The cost of the restricted parking zone (RPZ) permit system planned around Southeast Seattle light rail stations should not be borne by the residents or employees needing permits. There are ample instances in Seattle, such as the RPZs at UW, SU and Group Health, where the parking demand generators bear the cost of the permits. In a similar way, the cost of the light rail station RPZ program should be internalized within the light rail project, not paid by impacted residents and businesses. We believe that up to 2 permits and 2 guest passes should be provided at no charge to the residents within an RPZ area, and that businesses located in the RPZ should be provided up to one pass per employee at no cost.”
What do you think? Who should pay for parking around light rail stations?
Related:
- ONA Says It Planned for Neighborhood Parking, City Blew It & ST Should Pick Up RPZ Tab (1/29/09)
- Letter to the Community: SDOT’s Restricted Parking Proposal = $45 for Your Permit (1/6/09)
- The Trains Are Coming: Where Will Riders Park? (12/30/08)
Who to know, where to eat & what to do in one of America’s most diverse zip codes!
{ 7 comments }
I really don’t mind paying for RPZ parking (and yes, I do live in one of the slated zones). As a resident, I actually consider myself a “parking demand generator”.
But seriously, what I would like to see tied to these fees are some extra infrastructure projects within the RPZs: particularly improvements to sidewalks, curbs, lighting, roads, and traffic calming tools.
Also, I would like to see some numbers on how RPZ affects businesses. But then with a recession, I’m not really sure how one would go about doing that.
It still blows my mind that SoundTransit doesn’t want to “encourage” people to park-and-ride, given that this has been the model for regional mass transit for decades. People are going to drive to the light rail whether it’s encouraged or not. If they’re doing so instead of driving all the way to their destination, I see that as a good thing, and don’t see any reason not to make reasonably priced parking available. I’d rather have a car parked in my neighborhood for a week (under the pay-online proposal outlined above) than know that someone had to get a ride to the airport by car.
In discussions with people around the community, I’ve found very few folks who are planning on using light rail if they are not located right next to the stations. It doesn’t make sense to walk to a bus – stop, spend 20 minutes on a bus, then wait for a train to take you downtown. It’s faster to drive to capitol hill and then take the bus right down Madison. Also, who wants to get soaked in the Seattle Storms? Come on Seattle, put in park and rides. Light Rail folks told me it was the Mayor’s decision and he felt as though people in Seattle didn’t need and couldn’t afford cars. huh? Not all of us folks down here work in downtown anyways…..many of us commute east or south.
I do have a bit of personal experience, both as the child of an engineer who worked on a light rail system and studied how it was used, and also living for a number of years near light rail in DC not too far from downtown. Plenty of bad weather and heavier rain than we tend to get here.
People are a lot more willing walk to catch the bus near home to the train and bus back home from the train than to deal with a bus near their destination. Just the way it is, supported by studies. My Dad and most neighbors did it, and even walked quite a distance between the bus stop and the house. I took the bus from the university to the Rhode Island station to downtown and back a bunch to hang out downtown.
For some years I lived mostly on bus lines in DC, even one that ran along the same route as the Metro. I chose the bus.
At the end, I lived 2 blocks from the Brookland Metro for a long time. The area was commercial and apartment buildings right by the station, then single family to the east, and had a major college to the west. Ironically, the neighborhood was dangerous enough after sunset that I used my transfer to catch a bus to ride the two blocks home at night. This was because there was a big dark bus and drop off-pickup lot, then a block of houses before getting to the little ‘main street’ that I lived on. After a few friends got mugged…
We had parking stickers. They were cheap – like $5. They had to keep expanding the zone out to well over a mile from the station because people would drive as close as they legally could and hoof it or hop a bus to the station.
Actually, everywhere I lived in DC had residential parking stickers. Sometimes I wish I had them on my block here so people would be forced to park at least one of their cars in the garages in their new townhouses instead of using them for storage.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to have those residential parking zones. Hope ST pays for them for you guys.
Parking garages by Metro were a challenge. They had them at some stations. Actually, for a while Silver Spring was a pretty dead area of mostly parking garages and dangerous at night. Question is do you want your neighborhood to be a bunch of parking garages that are cheaper than downtown? Not much point in that and kind of a waste of your space. On the other hand, if you want to provide parking for people going to the airport, it would need to be cheaper than the airport lots. On balance, I would probably cab to the light rail station and then ride to the airport. or just take a shuttle. A decent use of space might be a lot for pickup and dropoff for cabs and others. But, watch that it is designed for safety.
Just my experience of living with light rail off and on for 20 years.
I think SE folks need to get used to the idea that although the rail is going through the Valley, it’s not meant for them. They’ll be taking the bus or driving their cars same as always.
It’s meant for the people that choose to live along the rail line.
This is a good thing, believe it or not.
It won’t seem like it until we have rail going to the Eastside, to the UW, ect. But patience.
I lived in DC for awhile, and as long as you can get the Museum of Natural History, all is good.
“But, call it a transit center, zone for an average density of 50, include low income housing and you have a little satellite suburblet where you can stash all the poor people if this law passes”
This from KTKeller.
I was hoping Keller was related to the Bellingham Kellers, VERY liberal. But no. Madison Valley can’t hold more than one, I guess.
Ratzby is right………I agree with you on this one………light rail is not designed or intended for SE residents. The goal is to support the Northenders, downtown, and the Eastside. That may be ok but don’t make it seem like it’s for us.
Tom
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