Quote:
Originally Posted by Sainters7
I moved here in mid-2013 so i prob just missed out on the preliminary civic discussions when it was first built, but what's with the zero parking opportunities at any of the 69th St line stations? On the red line, even the very minor stops like 39th St station, which is essentially just a platform, provides ample parking for commuters. Meanwhile, a massive central hub on the West line like Westbrook station with its own building tower has ZERO parking lot for the public. They're all like that on 69th, I don't get it.
What really drives me crazy is right next to said massive central hub with zero parking spots is a Wal-Mart/mall, which even during Stampede week / work wk is at never more than maybe 75-80% capacity at best. Don't park there though!! (Unless you own a motorhome. Then stay for the week!) It's borderline entrapment.
I sincerely don't understand what the plan was when they decided West line LRT stops will not offer parking in any capacity. It's just bizarre. Not everyone that takes the train downtown also has to take a bus, it adds an extra 20min+ to my commute doing that
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Isn't that big parkade at 69th and 17th for transit users? (I have re-read your post, and I see that you are referring to the whole line - not just the 69th station.) I think that a lot of it also came down to nimby-ism and the fact that much of the line cuts through fairly built-up areas without much space for parking, or the desire of residents to have parking in their neighbourhoods.
That being said, I do think that the overall goal is to have people use feeder buses to get to the stations, instead of cars. The station near me (Tuscany) was designed with enough parking for local people, but deliberately made them difficult to access for dirty non-Tuscanites in their cars, hoping that they would continue on to Crowfoot instead. But being a newer area, the land for the station and parking had been set aside from the very beginning.
Westbrook is a different beast. The long term plan is for that whole area to be a high density "transit oriented development", so in theory, the people using it would be living and working within a very short walk of it. The issue with Wal-Mart and the mall is probably because it is private property, so they don't want to encourage free parking there as there is no benefit to them, plus they are on the hook for maintenance and that sort of thing.