City
Transportation Director: Sound Transit Shouldn't Kick Freeloaders Out of Its Parking Lots
At a Sound Transit board retreat this afternoon, state Department of Transportation director (and Sound Transit board member)Paula Hammond said she opposed limiting parking at Sound Transit's light-rail parking lots to transit users. Currently, many of Sound Transit's lots are already full or close to full, and some board members have proposed schemes that would bar drivers who simply use them as parking lots or require such drivers to pay for parking.
The issue came up during a discussion about how to manage Sound Transit's many parking lots. Hammond said she saw no reason drivers should be penalized for using the lots; King County Council member Julia Patterson responded that she disagreed, and that the lots, particularly overcrowded ones, should be restricted to actual transit users.
PubliCola asked Hammond to clarify her position on non-transit riders' use of public transit lots during a break from the retreat this afternoon. She said, "The board needs to be very careful about how we think about the use of Sound Transit facilities and who's paying for them. There's a whole lot of people in this region paying for Sound Transit, whether they use it or not. ... Why aren't we considering how to optimize all of our parking facilities instead of just jumping to, anybody who's not using light rail can't use the parking facilities?"
King County Council (and Sound Transit board) member Julia Patterson vociferously disagreed with Hammond at today's meeting. She told PubliCola, "I absolutely am adamant that we should give transit riders first priority. That's Sound Transit's mission---to provide transit options to the region. If we open up our parking lots to just anybody, sooner or later we're going to discover that people aren't taking light rail because they'll have to drive around forever to find a parking place. ... We invest millions of dollars in parking facilities. We need to make sure that people are able to use them."
Overfull parking lots could make voters less likely to support an extension of light rail in the future, Patterson adds.
Hammond and Patterson did agree that Sound Transit could take steps to reduce the number of non-rail riders who use their lots. Those steps might include signs (similar to the city of Seattle's ePark system) letting drivers know how many spots are available in each lot, increased bus service to serve rail stations, so that people might not have to drive to use the system, or charging drivers who use the lots but don't take light rail.
"I'm really leaning toward this idea of pricing disincentives for people who are parking there who are not using transit---making it expensive for people who are not using the trains to get into the lots, and letting people who are riding the trains to have the [parking fee] deducted from their ORCA card when they board the train," Patterson says.
Hammond also suggested that Sound Transit beef up enforcement of its existing rules, which restrict how long and at what times people can park in their lots. "I didn't know this, but Sound Transit today doesn't have enforcement capability," Hammond said. "So even if people park incorrectly or they leave their car there longer than they're supposed to, Sound Transit's only enforcement ability is to have their car towed."
The issue came up during a discussion about how to manage Sound Transit's many parking lots. Hammond said she saw no reason drivers should be penalized for using the lots; King County Council member Julia Patterson responded that she disagreed, and that the lots, particularly overcrowded ones, should be restricted to actual transit users.
PubliCola asked Hammond to clarify her position on non-transit riders' use of public transit lots during a break from the retreat this afternoon. She said, "The board needs to be very careful about how we think about the use of Sound Transit facilities and who's paying for them. There's a whole lot of people in this region paying for Sound Transit, whether they use it or not. ... Why aren't we considering how to optimize all of our parking facilities instead of just jumping to, anybody who's not using light rail can't use the parking facilities?"
King County Council (and Sound Transit board) member Julia Patterson vociferously disagreed with Hammond at today's meeting. She told PubliCola, "I absolutely am adamant that we should give transit riders first priority. That's Sound Transit's mission---to provide transit options to the region. If we open up our parking lots to just anybody, sooner or later we're going to discover that people aren't taking light rail because they'll have to drive around forever to find a parking place. ... We invest millions of dollars in parking facilities. We need to make sure that people are able to use them."
Overfull parking lots could make voters less likely to support an extension of light rail in the future, Patterson adds.
Hammond and Patterson did agree that Sound Transit could take steps to reduce the number of non-rail riders who use their lots. Those steps might include signs (similar to the city of Seattle's ePark system) letting drivers know how many spots are available in each lot, increased bus service to serve rail stations, so that people might not have to drive to use the system, or charging drivers who use the lots but don't take light rail.
"I'm really leaning toward this idea of pricing disincentives for people who are parking there who are not using transit---making it expensive for people who are not using the trains to get into the lots, and letting people who are riding the trains to have the [parking fee] deducted from their ORCA card when they board the train," Patterson says.
Hammond also suggested that Sound Transit beef up enforcement of its existing rules, which restrict how long and at what times people can park in their lots. "I didn't know this, but Sound Transit today doesn't have enforcement capability," Hammond said. "So even if people park incorrectly or they leave their car there longer than they're supposed to, Sound Transit's only enforcement ability is to have their car towed."
