hmmm.... light rail isnt even running yet and they are already trying to blame something for its failure!

i wonder. if the 13,000 parking spaces in downtown phoenix paid for with taxpayer money magicly disappeared overnight would that generate 13,000 to 26,000 new light rail riders and make light rail a success? i doubt it.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0417parking0417.html

Cheap parking may hurt light rail Downtown prices fall below average

Sean Holstege The Arizona Republic Apr. 17, 2006 12:00 AM

It costs less to park in downtown Phoenix than in downtown Boise, Idaho.

In fact, downtown Phoenix garages cost less than a third of the national average, with supply dwarfing demand, according to experts and a national study.

That may be bad news for the Valley's light-rail system, as cheap and widespread parking in the core can discourage transit ridership.

"The cheaper and more abundant the parking, the less people ride transit," said G.B. Arrington, the former transit director in Portland, Ore., which capped its downtown parking and raised parking fees in the 1970s to boost light rail.

Phoenix's cheap parking worries Rick Simonetta, chief executive officer of Valley Metro Rail, but he thinks downtown growth will produce enough riders and drive parking costs up to solve the problem.

"If you're looking at parking alone, yeah, it becomes a tough call for light rail," he said.

Meanwhile, commuters to downtown enjoy parking bargains that few other major cities can match, which downtown boosters promote.

There are 26,000 parking spaces scattered in garages and surface lots around downtown Phoenix. Half were built with taxpayer money.

An unreserved public space in a monthly garage averages $2 a day. That doesn't include low rates paid by employees at company- and government-owned garages. Maricopa County offers free parking to nearly 5,200 downtown workers.

In public garages, the average price of parking has fallen from $50 a month in 2002 to $43 a month last year, according to a survey by real estate consulting firm Colliers International. Nationally, the average rate climbed slightly.

So, why would public agencies that promote light rail subsidize garages that could undermine its success?

"That's a good question," Phoenix Councilman Tom Simplot said. He added that the current garages were approved by prior councils.

City planners walk a fine line in balancing parking and light rail. Build too little or charge too much and it benefits transit but drives away people who wouldn't or can't ride rail. Build too much or charge too little and the opposite happens.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon maintains there is no parking glut but added that the city will need to look at Portland's model of capping parking.

In the meantime, the city plans to build additional parking next to its garage on Third Avenue and Adams Street. Public Works Director Mark Leonard said, "There's no question we will need more parking for our employees. It's just a matter of when."

John Semmens, a local transportation economist and light-rail critic, considers a parking cap folly.

"The day of luring people out of their cars, it just won't happen," he said. "If they don't have parking, they will divert development out of the downtown area."

But land-use experts and some city officials say the links between parking costs and transit use are well-known.

"This council understands that we need to do everything we can to encourage people to ride transit, and abundant parking is antithetical to that," Simplot said.

The Valley's $1.5 billion light-rail system opens in 2008.

Robert Dunphy, a senior transportation research fellow at the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit land-use research organization, said, "For light rail, you don't want too much parking. You want to pinch it a little.

"You want to make downtown as attractive as possible," he added. "You want more buildings, more amenities, more transit and to ease them away from an easy parking choice."

Of course, people make commuting choices based on more than parking. There is travel time, gas prices, convenience, need for a vehicle at work and other factors. The farther a commuter is from downtown, the more money he or she saves by using light rail or a bus. Driving and transit cost nearly the same, about $15 a week, when the commute is about five miles one way, according to Valley Metro's online calculator, based on typical gas prices and a car that gets 25 miles per gallon.

Simonetta and city officials said that as development picks up pace downtown, the parking issue will fade. Demand for parking will grow with the expanded convention center, Arizona State University's campus, additional housing and biomedical centers.

"As new buildings get built, and property values increase, the cost of parking will constantly be rising," he said.

Arrington said that in deciding on parking, the city should focus on its overall vision, not just light rail.

"You should do what you need to do to change downtown," he said. "Portland wanted a compact, vital, 24-hour downtown. You won't find one . . . in the United States that is based on the automobile. If you dedicated less space for parking, land would be more valuable and more vital."

Contact the reporter at sean.holstege@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8334.


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