Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This e-mail to Mr. Roadshow seemed applicable to several recent threads equally:
Quote:
One day I had to be at an appointment in San Francisco by 10:45 a.m., so I left home at 8:30 a.m. to drive to the Dublin/Pleasanton station to catch the 9:28 a.m. train. There were no parking spots at the Dublin station, so I drove to the West Dublin one, where parking is even more limited.
...
I'm a big fan of public transit, but the parking situation is maddening.
I find it a little ironic that a person who wanted to use PT couldn't because PT wasn't accessible enough to a car-firster. It's also sad that the person was mad at PT for that reason, as if PT was the problem. It's like saying "The air is hardly clean enough to breathe, so the air is the problem" while ignoring that the actual problem is what's polluting the air.
This e-mail to Mr. Roadshow seemed applicable to several recent threads equally:
I find it a little ironic that a person who wanted to use PT couldn't because PT wasn't accessible enough to a car-firster. It's also sad that the person was mad at PT for that reason, as if PT was the problem. It's like saying "The air is hardly clean enough to breathe, so the air is the problem" while ignoring that the actual problem is what's polluting the air.
Actually park and rode from that station into SF over Thanksgiving weekend. The parking situation there is out of hand, as Pleasanton is completely pedestrian-hostile and the BART station is located in an area bracketed by sprawling office parks and the 580 freeway - in other words there is no choice but to park and ride, maybe ride your bike (but even then BART has arcane bicycle rules too).
I find it a little ironic that a person who wanted to use PT couldn't because PT wasn't accessible enough to a car-firster.
It's not ironic at all if you're just trying to get somewhere rather than support some ideal of public transit. A rail station can only serve pedestrians in a quite limited area. If you want to serve more than that area with the rail station, you need to allow for other forms of transportation. If you want to be car hostile, you limit the utility of your public transit.
It's why I haven't taken BART to get to SF since I moved out of Sacramento. I'll usually do casual carpool. It's more comfortable, cheaper, more environmentally friendly, faster, and it actually works whereas driving to BART you've got to get there by 6:30 or 7 at the latest to find a parking spot.
Pleasanton looks like a pretty good place to encourage biking, it doesn't have as many hills as SF. Feeder buses have some potential too, especially if they're time to minimize transfer times.
GO Transit has similar issues with parking, the parking lots fill up around 8am, even though some of them have rooms for around 2000 cars. GO Transit is building some huge parking garages to make more space for cars, and in some cases, so that they can develop parts of their parking lots. I'm not sure they'll ever truly meet the demand for parking though, I think they'll just have to encourage alternatives like intensification near the stations, biking, and feeder buses. Much of Toronto's subway riders get to their station by bus, and I think feeder buses are used quite a lot by Calgary. GO stations are served by feeder buses, but not to the same degree as in Toronto, so I think there's room to improve there.
This e-mail to Mr. Roadshow seemed applicable to several recent threads equally:
I find it a little ironic that a person who wanted to use PT couldn't because PT wasn't accessible enough to a car-firster. It's also sad that the person was mad at PT for that reason, as if PT was the problem. It's like saying "The air is hardly clean enough to breathe, so the air is the problem" while ignoring that the actual problem is what's polluting the air.
Well I live in Oakland. And the BART parking in all of the stations in Oakland is pretty much full by 6:45a or 7a. I don't even think about driving to the station between the hours of 7a - 4p.
But many of the cities with BART stations with parking, have limited option to not drive to the station (and people don't necessarily live in bike distance either).
Well I live in Oakland. And the BART parking in all of the stations in Oakland is pretty much full by 6:45a or 7a. I don't even think about driving to the station between the hours of 7a - 4p.
But many of the cities with BART stations with parking, have limited option to not drive to the station (and people don't necessarily live in bike distance either).
I get this. It's the reality of transit in the Bay area. But am I the only one who thinks, in abstract terms at least, that it's odd to complain about transit not being car-friendly enough?
Well I live in Oakland. And the BART parking in all of the stations in Oakland is pretty much full by 6:45a or 7a. I don't even think about driving to the station between the hours of 7a - 4p.
But many of the cities with BART stations with parking, have limited option to not drive to the station (and people don't necessarily live in bike distance either).
I used to live in Alameda and would occasionally drive to Fruitvale to take BART into SF; I was never unable to find parking. This was around 8:00 each morning.
But that was 6 years ago, so maybe things have gotten worse since then.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
