Cyclists Will Pay to Park at Seattle’s New Light Rail Stations. Will Drivers?
Right now, the Seattle region is hashing out how to spend $50 billion to expand transit. The project list, known as ST3, is tilted heavily toward the suburbs, not the urban core where ridership would be higher.
Included with all those suburban stations will be thousands of new parking stalls, which each cost tens of thousands of dollars to build. Interestingly, Josh Feit at PubliCola reports that Sound Transit hasn't decided yet whether to charge for car parking at stations, but it has already indicated that bike parking won't be free:
As the debate over parking for cars at light rail stations gets underway -- should people have to pay for parking (activists from the Transit Access Stakeholders group think so) -- ST is already setting a precedent for bike parking. Bikers have to pay.
Sound Transit debuted a new bike storage cage at its Beacon Hill station last month where bikers pay $4.10 a month for access. ST says they will replicate the bike storage model at more stations going forward.
With the ST3 plan considering at least 8,330 new parking spaces for cars at about $70,000 a stall, the debate should include another stat: Federal Highway Administration estimates put the cost of building new bike racks at about $50 per bike and more elaborate storage, like cages, costing about $1,500 per bike.
At least if bike parking has a price, there's no excuse to provide free parking for cars.
Elsewhere on the Network today: Mobility Lab posts a new video explaining the concept of transportation demand management. Columbus Underground announces the opening of the city's new airport bus service. And Broken Sidewalk details what the city of Louisville is doing to make biking to the Kentucky Derby convenient.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog Chicago
Protected bike lanes are coming to Dearborn, Clark, and – maybe someday – Wells on Near North Side
Dearborn is getting northbound PBLs north of Kinzie, and Clark is getting southbound ones, but Wells Street will have to wait.
Taste of 79th Community Walk uses a stroll with a New Orleans-style brass band to highlight the corridor
Saturday's event was a reminder that there's no better way to get to know a neighborhood than taking a walk with others, enjoying live music, and supporting local businesses.
Today’s Headlines for Wednesday, September 20
Check it out: Now it’s safer to get on and off the 312 RiverRun from Belmont Avenue
One of the coolest new things on the on-street route is the treatment of Belmont near and over the Chicago River, by the southern trailhead of the north-south path.
