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Park and Ride Lots Never enough parking....

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  • Member since
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  • From: Atlanta
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Posted by oltmannd on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 6:42 PM

The PATCO Hi-Speed Line has some BIG park and ride lots - all flat.  The downside is that at some, the furthest space is more than 1/3 mile from the station. More like park-walk-and ride lots! 

 

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by al-in-chgo on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 5:47 PM
 CSSHEGEWISCH wrote:

PACE (RTA's bus division) does operate rush-hour only feeder buses at several stations, mostly in DuPage County and some north and northwest suburbs.  A fair number of other such routes have been discontinued for lack of ridership.  

 

Right, but "never say never" to the routes that were tried in the past and abandoned.  Metra is getting more riders because of the rising price of gasoline, and extra people who ordinarily would have driven to work, or straight to the train station, might be lured by the prospect of a work day without having to drive the car at all.  

I have limited experience with PACE but I have been impressed on the few rides I took at how well the buses kept to schedule.  Of course, the CTA is quite an "object lesson" by comparison!  - a.s. 

 

al-in-chgo
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  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:19 AM

PACE (RTA's bus division) does operate rush-hour only feeder buses at several stations, mostly in DuPage County and some north and northwest suburbs.  A fair number of other such routes have been discontinued for lack of ridership.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:59 AM
Park a string of  tri-leval Auto-Racks next to the station as a Temporary Portible Garage
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Posted by al-in-chgo on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 2:03 AM
 dldance wrote:

Utah's FrontRunner has been in service for just about 1 week and already ridership is 120% of expectations.  If planners don't expect much then they don't plan for much parking.

dd

 

If I were a rail-transit planner, I'd do my best to pre-clear permits and zoning to allow the flat parking lot to become a multi-storey. 

Better yet, if the transit agency has the money, even a "Greenfield" line extension is better than none.  Currently Metra operates the UP west line thru Geneva to Elburn, and I believe it's the MILW-west line that runs thru Elgin to Big Timber.

The ideal, of course, would be to have circulator buses running to the station during peak hours.  There's a lot of that done in the suburbs and subdivisions of Toronto, where the bus schedules mesh with those of the GO trains and the feeder routes come right up many of the culs-de-sac during rush times.  But would American city/county dichotomy politics louse up such coordination? 

 

al-in-chgo
  • Member since
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  • From: Near Promentory UT
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Posted by dldance on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 10:09 PM

Utah's FrontRunner has been in service for just about 1 week and already ridership is 120% of expectations.  If planners don't expect much then they don't plan for much parking.

dd

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Park and Ride Lots Never enough parking....
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:51 PM
 Pittsburgh had to build a new garage at its South Hills Station and I have been trying to argue for a extention of the extension of the Rapid to I-480....We have to think about the fact that a good many people drive to the light rail-commuter station when we plan new lines and that a light rail-Freeway Interchange may be needed as improvments to roads leading to the light rail terminals...Parking had been a huge issue on MARC Trains as again there is never enough and few people live on a main bus route----Most people live in Subdivsions miles away from the main road

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