Wednesday, June 26, 2002

By Stuart Cohen and Mike Daley

Plummeting ridership and a slowed economy have left one of our
region's most popular and important public resources on the brink of
fiscal disaster. BART, the transportation lifeline for hundreds of
thousands of Bay Area residents, is facing a $28 million budget
shortfall and has a day left to finalize a plan to close that gap.

BART appears to favor a three-pronged approach to the budget crisis:
fare increases, service cuts and a small amount of paid reserved
parking at some stations for well-heeled customers. Service cuts and
layoffs mean fewer and dirtier trains, less safe and dirtier stations
and more transfers. When combined with increased fares, the result
will be decreased ridership, something that BART and the region's
roads cannot afford. Clearly, charging customers more for a lesser
product is a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately there is a better alternative. A daily parking fee has the
potential to increase ridership while helping to solve the budget
crisis.

Although parking fees might strike some as unfair, it's important to
remember that "free parking" is not really free, it's unpaid. A 1993
BART study found that it costs more than $7 million a year to operate
and maintain BART's parking facilities -- about $1 per parking space
per day. That's a cost everyone pays, although just 25 percent of BART
riders use the lots and those who do, on average, are wealthier than
BART riders who don't. Free parking made sense as a way to attract
riders when BART began, but the policy is outdated now that lots fill
by 7:30 or 8 a.m., leaving many would-be riders to drive to work.

This proposal would entail a five-step approach:

• Parking fees would be charged during the morning commute: $1 at
  lots that don't fill and $2 at lots that do.

• Fees would be lowered if parking lots do not regularly reach
  capacity.

• Reserved spots at a small percentage of parking spaces, priced at a
  higher rate, would provide a valuable service for those who cannot
  arrive before the lots fill up.

• Excess spaces would be made available to long-term and airport
  parkers once the BART-SFO extension opens.

• Parking after 10 a.m. and on weekends would remain free.

The proposal has a number of advantages over fare increases, layoffs
and service reductions. Daily parking fees are supported by elected
leaders who specialize in transportation: Senators. Liz Figueroa,
D-Fremont, Don Perata, D- Oakland and Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, and
have the support of a coalition of transit, environmental, labor and
consumer rights groups, including the Sierra Club, Environmental
Defense and the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition.

This well-tailored parking proposal would provide a new revenue source
that by its second year would generate between $10 million and $25
million annually.

These funds would go a long way toward solving the budget crisis. Once
the crisis is solved, parking fee revenue could be used to improve
feeder bus service to BART stations and create and improve bike trails
to stations.

This five-point proposal is good for the environment as it has the
potential to increase BART ridership. Every day, people who would ride
BART end up driving when they encounter full lots. More than half of
BART's parking lots fill before peak commute hours; even nearby
privately owned lots (such as at West Oakland, which charges $5-$6 per spot) fill to near capacity. BART's studies show that a large
percentage of people who park at BART live less than a mile away. By
charging a modest parking fee, many riders, especially those who live
near BART stations, would be encouraged to carpool, bike, walk, or
take public transit to BART, freeing up space for those who must
drive.

The proposal is good for families. Free parking rewards those who can
arrive early in the morning before the lots fill up. But these early
hours are tough on families and people with fixed 9-to-5 work
hours. Parking fees would be a better way to allocate spaces.

There is no easy solution to the current budget crisis. But one thing
is certain: Reasonable parking fees are a preferred alternative to
service cuts, layoffs and fare increases. BART and the Bay Area can't
afford anything less.

Parking, fare increases

Who: BART Board of Directors
What: Public hearing on fare increases and parking fees
Time: 9 a.m., June 27
Place: BART Board Room, First Floor, 800 Madison St., Oakland

Stuart Cohen is the director of the Bay Area Transportation and Land
Use Coalition, and Mike Daley is the conservation director of the
Sierra Club's San Francisco Bay chapter.
For more information: http://www.transcoalition.org