Downtown Parking Survey

Miggy · Post by **Miggy** » January 11th, 2011, 1:30 pm

Probably the most dramatic example of what Aden describes is Cheonggyecheon in Seoul, South Korea. A giant highway through the middle of the city was removed and made back into a stream/park. By all reports, it's working out quite well.

If there's any mathameticians on this forum, the explanation for why it works rests on a concept known as Braess's paradox:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess's_paradox

And yes...Portland (aka 'the P word') gets mentioned a lot as an urban planning model. San Fran, and more recently NYC as well. Each of those cities have better alternative modes of transportation, though. To some extent it's a chicken and egg discussion...no one takes transit so long as car travel is super cheap, easy and convenient. The city doesn't generally build transit where there's no demand or suitable density at either the source or destination. As a general rule, transit has been the first mover to get things going....and austin is way behind on that.

Jessica · Post by **Jessica** » January 13th, 2011, 10:50 am

Actually, if the red line had a good parking lot at the Saltio plaza location, and ran at night, I would totally take that in to downtown. And enjoy doing it. It's a bit of a walk to the hideout, but it would feel nice. Weird, huh? I'd pay $1 or $2 for a train, and be fine with that, but don't want to pay for surface or garage parking.

arthursimone · Post by **arthursimone** » January 13th, 2011, 11:37 am

Mike, what do you think or know about the proposed streetcar from Mueller to UT along Manor?

Miggy · Post by **Miggy** » January 13th, 2011, 12:41 pm

arthursimone wrote:Mike, what do you think or know about the proposed streetcar from Mueller to UT along Manor?

That's the urban rail proposal that will go on the ballot in 2012. I'm personally not sure about the strategy of putting it on during a presidential election because that's what sunk it in 2000, but better political minds than me have suggested that it is best to be included in a high turnout election. So there it is.

Beyond the election year timing, It has been delayed several times in order to get the full vetting done and also to qualify for federal matching funds, but the proposal right now is here: http://www.recaonline.com/docs/arc/arc2 ... _DRAFT.pdf

Recommended Technologies: Urban Rail is the City of Austin's terminology for a blend between a modern streetcar and a light rail transit (LRT) vehicle. An Urban Rail vehicle is smaller, lighter, and more maneuverable than a typical LRT and can operate in mixed traffic and in dedicated rights-of-way.
Length: 33.8 track miles, 16.5 route miles
Capital Cost: $995 million in first quarter 2010 dollars, or $1.3 billion accounting for inflation.
Operations Cost: Approximately $25 million per year.
Ridership: Average weekday ridership projected to be 27,000 by year 2030.
Operations Plan: Two crossing routes (6.5 and 10 route miles each), with 10 minute peak/off-peak headways, using 27 vehicles (plus 2 spare), with service 16 hours a day/5 days a week and reduced service on weekends and holidays.
Travel Time: Approximately 32-33 minutes from end-to-end for both routes.
Routes: Downtown Commuter Rail Station to Seaholm Redevelopment/Downtown to Complex to UT (east/west CBD)/UT to MLK station to Mueller/Lady Bird Lake Crossing to Riverside to ABIA with a Palmer/Long Center Spur.

That map isn't the easiest to read, but it essentially goes up Manor to get to Mueller. It's a big "if", though on whether or not UT will allow the urban rail or tram to pass through campus. UT, while a great asset to this city, hasn't always had the best reputation of working with the city on issues like these.

The other big planning issue would naturally be the casual note on the map about a new bridge crossing the river at Trinity Street.(http://www.austinstrategicmobility.com/ ... 100726.pdf). Not a small deal anyway you cut it. If the Congress Avenue Bridge isn't suitable for the trains and can't be retrofitted, they would need to build a new crossing at Brazos or, more likely, Trinity. Regardless of which way that cuts, it makes me think that the Mueller to downtown link would likely be the first stage once this gets moving.

The other line to notice on there is the Green Line. It would have the same terminus as the Red Line, but ride on existing rail out to Elgin (and is referred to as 'The Sausage Link'). It will be accompanied by a hike and Bike trail, too, and while it probably won't be as scenic as the recently named 'Violet Crown Trail' (aka Walk for a Day http://www.hillcountryconservancy.org/l ... day-trail/)...it should be a nice addition that encourages more transit oriented development around commuter centers East of downtown.

Does this help at all?

Miggy · Post by **Miggy** » January 13th, 2011, 12:54 pm

since they didn't include a legend on the map, the purple lines are Bus Rapid Transit - which is some prioritized bus lanes/signaling techonology.

the LStar or blue line ending at Seaholm is the Lone Star Regional Rail connection between Austin and San Antonio. http://lonestarrail.com/index.php/lstar ... -overview/ Neither a complete pipe dream nor terribly easy, either, the goal there is to relocate some freight traffic to other nearby lines. It's challenging because, in some cases, firms have been on that line for 100 years or more. A large number of train crossings are also 'at grade' meaning they require roads to close while they pass. Passenger lines tend to be shorter and thus the road delays would be, too. It's a fringe benefit of making this happen.

It's not high-speed rail per se...but it would establish a regular passenger connection between the two cities and points in between that today is challenging to work around the Union Pacific freight schedule. Success at this would be a pre-requisite to future high speed rail plans.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » January 13th, 2011, 2:12 pm

Aww, man, a little bummed that the purple line turns out to be a bus, but still, glad to see this rail stuff is coming up again.

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » January 13th, 2011, 2:19 pm

Last night I took the #10 bus downtown and got a few drinks at the Brown Bar. As I was walking there, I noticed just how empty downtown was at that time (about 8:30pm). Are there really parking issues on weekday nights enough to extend the meters to midnight?

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · January 13th, 2011, 2:23 pm

kaci_beeler wrote:Last night I took the #10 bus downtown and got a few drinks at the Brown Bar. As I was walking there, I noticed just how empty downtown was at that time (about 8:30pm). Are there really parking issues on weekday nights enough to extend the meters to midnight?

just to play Devil's advocate (because i agree with you), perhaps the cold weather might've been keeping people from going out as well.

Spots · Post by **Spots** » January 13th, 2011, 7:16 pm

kaci_beeler wrote:Last night I took the #10 bus downtown and got a few drinks at the Brown Bar. As I was walking there, I noticed just how empty downtown was at that time (about 8:30pm). Are there really parking issues on weekday nights enough to extend the meters to midnight?

I'm curious enough to head downtown on random nights and document my experience. Anyone else want to document random samplings of weeknights?

Jessica · Post by **Jessica** » January 13th, 2011, 10:01 pm

Sure, I'm down there all the time anyway.

Spots · Post by **Spots** » January 13th, 2011, 10:49 pm

If anyone is down for random sampling:

1. Time frame
2. Distance traveled
3. Number of available meter spaces

Example of a decent data entry:

"Thursday 1.13.11 between 8:30 and 9 pm. I walked 3 blocks from Brazos to Red River and saw 8 free spaces."

( I wouldn't count spaces that are filled while you are present. )

I feel this kind of sampling will help highlight the fact that the problem is area specific. Say West 6th street never has any free parking... well the solution obviously isn't to tax patrons ALL over downtown. The solution might be a parking garage somewhere along West 6th.

Post by **Jon Bolden** » February 21st, 2011, 8:56 am

The results of the survey are up:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/transportati ... arking.htm

(down the page a bit in a PDF link)

TexasImprovMassacre · Post by **TexasImprovMassacre** » March 3rd, 2011, 4:03 pm

It looks like this measure passed with a vote of 6 - 1.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... until.html

lame lame lame

What was the point of surveying the people? The results showed that people weren't in favor of this, but it passed anyway. Which isn't surprising. Maybe it was just a way to try to save face when they passed what they knew they would pass all along? Why wouldn't the city institute something to make themselves an extra few million dollars a year? Especially when they are only accountable for spending 40 percent on something as vague as "downtown improvements".

Now we can all look forward to paying for signs to direct people to the parking garages they aren't going to pay to use, and I'm willing to bet that none of this will actually make finding a spot any easier.

Justin D. · Post by **Justin D.** » March 4th, 2011, 1:18 am

TexasImprovMassacre wrote:It looks like this measure passed with a vote of 6 - 1.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... until.html

lame lame lame

What was the point of surveying the people? The results showed that people weren't in favor of this, but it passed anyway. Which isn't surprising. Maybe it was just a way to try to save face when they passed what they knew they would pass all along? Why wouldn't the city institute something to make themselves an extra few million dollars a year? Especially when they are only accountable for spending 40 percent on something as vague as "downtown improvements".

Now we can all look forward to paying for signs to direct people to the parking garages they aren't going to pay to use, and I'm willing to bet that none of this will actually make finding a spot any easier.

What does that other 60 percent go to?

And I like how they tried to justify this by saying people looking for parking spots caused congestion downtown from them driving around. Yeah, that usually took me about five minutes. Ten at most. The congestion didn't come from people looking for spots to park. The congestion came from the fact that DOWNTOWN IS FUCKING BUSY THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY.

Spots · Post by **Spots** » March 4th, 2011, 4:23 am

Justin D. wrote:
And I like how they tried to justify this by saying people looking for parking spots caused congestion downtown from them driving around. Yeah, that usually took me about five minutes. Ten at most. The congestion didn't come from people looking for spots to park. The congestion came from the fact that DOWNTOWN IS FUCKING BUSY THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY.

But this is great news... for business owners in the suburbs.