Parking Construction

I live in Dallas, so fill in blanks for me as much as you wish.

Seems to me one major objection to the use of public transit remains "What do I do with my car while I'm in Center City?". Parking availability in places such as most R3 stations, 69th St., Fern Rock, etc., will always set the upper limit on SEPTA ridership.

Does SEPTA ever air plans to build multi-staory parking garages to support its rail lines? One example where SEPTA already owns the land would be 69th St.

The idea in my head calls for adding two stories over the existing Market St. (I know - it's really West Chester Pike!) lot, building the new tiers well over the El tracks and the ex-PRR Cardington ROW, followed by demolishing the existing surface level, being rebuilt flat instead of NOE. Additional access could be in the form of an elevated two-lane roadway from, get this - VICTORY Ave., parallelling the P & W tracks, to enter the structure on Level Two.

To add to passenger convenience, a second station could be built round the bend from our present 69th St. MFL station, called "69th St. Garage", where A trains could be originated during rush hours.

THIS, I believe, like they do on Non-Judicial Transit, is how you substantially increase ridership.

(I know - It'll NEVER HAPPEN!!)

Talk it over,
Garry

Septa should clean up and repair the existing lot at Millbourne. Make it a secured and attended lot. And most of all ADVERTISE IT in all of the West Philly and Delaware County paper as well as the Inquirer!

The cost of building a garage is around $8,500 to 10,500 per space while surface parking is $1,500 per space. Check out: http://www.highconstruction.com/hcc/Res ... rages.html. If you can charge $10 per day for a garage space, you could probably get the financing to build it.

My suggestion is to build walkable town centers around the train stations, with retail, office, and housing closest to the station, and put the parking at the edges of this development. If you put the parking garage at train station, you increase the auto traffic without helping local businesses.

Good suggestion regarding buiding stores, attractions and offices around train stations. Unfortunately, this is Pensylvania and Septa not METRO and Maryland and Northern Virginia. Garages are expensive, but look at the garages that NJ Transit builds. Ahh, again this is SEPTA.

I go back to my original idea, fix up the surface lot at Millbourne, charge $4 a day which will include 2 tokens. Again, considering the location, make sure it is attended and secure between 6am and 12:30am.