It looks like the City plans to install new parking meters around different neighborhoods, which I can only guess is a good thing. They seem to be going to neighborhoods which hadn’t had meters before, which also is a good thing.
This year, the city will look at parking in West Seattle Junction, upper Queen Anne, the Denny Triangle, Fremont, the triangle bordered by Denny, Broad and Aurora, and the Pike-Pine neighborhood in Capitol Hill.
In 2009, the city will study the rest of Capitol Hill, Madison Valley and First Hill, and in 2010, Morgan Junction, Ballard again, Wallingford, Madison Park and Greenwood/Phinney Ridge.
Many of the neighborhoods Snyder is visiting also are expecting better public bus service in the next few years, a result of the Transit Now initiative passed in 2006. West Seattle residents are expecting express bus service to downtown and upper Queen Anne, and more frequent bus service downtown later this year.
As HugeAssCity points out, in some neighborhoods gridlock is going to become endemic, and the only way out is transit use. Removing parking is another way to encourage people to ride transit.
The worry is, of course, that people in the City will decide to drive to work elsewhere, and that people who currently work in the City will choose jobs in the suburbs. But with gas prices the way they are, I am not too worried.
a very good thing.
this is a way to collect revenue (meter money + fines) and also create demand for transit.
people welded to the driver’s seat of their cars will snivel and whine but that’s life… we’ll see them on the bus or walking or riding their bikes (and if they really can’t get over driving, we’ll see them in the ‘burbs)
What good is parking if it’s never available? Charging people is a better way to get people around rather than to drive around for 45 minutes looking for a spot.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with this since I rarely drive anyway, and it’s several years out from what I can tell. I’ll be marginally effected by the W Seattle change, only since I rarely go to the Junction area during the weekday.
What people in W Seattle are concerned about is our current lack of good, regular transit, not only out of the city, but within W Seattle. There is no bus service that serves a continuous route, say from Alki Beach to the Morgan Junction. In fact, on weekends and during much of the weekday, there is no service to Alki, period. The 128 only runs as far north as the Alaska Junction. It takes at least 45 minutes to 1 hr to get from the Morgan Junction to as close to Alki as possible (includes 1 transfer). I’ve done it exactly once.
While the meters will certainly be used, and with all the new condos going up in the area, the neighborhoods will feel the crunch of those parking outside of the pay area.
Yeah West Seattle is getting the short-end with transit for the most part.
Unfortunately in Cap Hill all this does is push people to the residential streets and take away parking from the folks who live in these neighborhoods.
Also I’m not sure I see a connection between meters and encouraging people to take transit. Usually the meters end by nightfall which is when people trickle into these neighborhoods to enjoy the restaurants and bars.
I live on Capitol Hill and there is no parking for any residents. Most of the buildings in the neighborhood don’t have parking so most residents have to park on the street. The only reason people drive is because of the parking laws. They have to move the vehicle to avoid a ticket. Just because people own cars, that does not mean they are driving them. I use my vehicle maybe once a week to sometimes go out of town. Otherwise I walk or take the bus. The city needs to stop penalizing weekend drivers just because they own a vehicle.