To you haters of public transit

I ran across this article today while reading the newspaper, so i though I would put it up for all of you who still think public transit in minnesota is a bad idea and won't get used.

Parking can be challenge of park-and-ride
Many of Metro Transit's parking lots are filling up rapidly as the Twin Cities area's demand for transit continues to grow.
Laurie Blake, Star Tribune

When Jenny Buhring started riding the bus to work two years ago, she could leave her car on the second tier of Maple Grove's new three-level transit center ramp.

Now with more commuters on board, her hunt for a space at the park-and-ride has intensified.

"Every morning, as time progresses, I get farther and farther [out] on the roof," said Buhring, who is considering getting her children out of bed earlier to make sure she can get a space. "It's starting to be a concern."

She is feeling the squeeze of a two-year jump in park-and-ride use around the Twin Cities metropolitan area that has gobbled up five years' worth of transit parking capacity.

Riders who turned to transit in droves when gas prices spiked are sticking with buses and trains to save money and time. Thus, 29 of the region's 103 park-and-ride lots, including the Maple Grove station, which opened in December 2003, are nearly full, full or overloaded.

The Metropolitan Council, which plans the region's park-and-ride capacity, found in a September survey that 78 percent of the 19,000 spaces were occupied.

The huge growth in the last two years will require picking up the pace for adding parking space, said Craig Lamothe, manager of facilities planning for Metro Transit, a service of the Met Council.

"The challenge is bringing facilities on line fast enough to meet the unmet demand," said Robert Gibbons, director of customer service for Metro Transit.

Scrambling to keep up, Metro Transit twice this year expanded the 95th Avenue lot off Interstate Hwy. 35W in Blaine -- and will add another 100 spaces there next year.

At an Interstate Hwy. 394 park-and-ride lot on Louisiana Avenue in St. Louis Park, Metro Transit has taken out all landscaping to squeeze in more parking.

At Rosedale Center in Roseville, Metro Transit has a contract to use 375 spaces, but 550 commuters are parking there.

Ridership still rising

Like packed trains and standing-room-only buses, the demand for suburban park-and-ride space indicates that transit is taking off in the Twin Cities area. Officials say ridership continues to climb, despite a drop in gas prices. Through September, ridership on Metro Transit's suburban express buses is up 11.5 percent.

In 1999, the entire metro park-and-ride system offered 6,500 spaces. Now there are nearly 20,000. Another 5,000 will be opened to commuters between 2007 and 2010.

The idea, Gibbons said, is to offer riders transit centers with ample parking and frequent service "so that everyone who wants a parking place and a bus seat has one."

Park-and-ride lots help keep traffic out of the metro core. But transportation planners know that commuters who usually park at the bus stop may just stay behind the wheel, if they can't find a space.

"We hear, 'I couldn't find [a place] to park, so I just drove,' " Gibbons said.

Buhring acknowledges that she has that option. But her company subsidizes her bus pass, downtown parking costs at least $8 a day and she would miss the time she has to herself on the bus to read or prepare for work. She says the parking crunch won't bump her off the bus: "It's way too convenient."

Barry Evavold, another Maple Grove commuter who has been pushed up to roof-top parking at the transit center, said he would ask his wife to drop him at the station or even walk to a less-convenient bus stop, rather than return to daily car commuting.

At the park-and-ride lot at Rosedale Center, transit officials are worried about wearing out their welcome.

Rollin Hunsicker, vice president and general manager of Rosedale, said that with the new theaters, shops and restaurants, the center wants to ensure that commuters don't edge out customers.

Gibbons said, "We are looking for alternative spaces near Rosedale, because we have to ship some out or they won't let us be there."

More spaces pending

Plymouth Metrolink opened the area's newest park-and-ride ramp off Hwy. 55 in October. Metro Transit has two ramps under construction now, one at Hopkins Crossroad off I-394 in Minnetonka and another at County Rd. 81 and 63rd Av. in Brooklyn Center.

Come spring, work will start on a five-level lot for the Hiawatha light-rail line at the 28th Avenue station in Bloomington. It will open in 2008 with 1,400 spaces.

Looking to the voters

A lack of money is limiting expansion. Transit proponents are hoping that on Tuesday voters will approve a change in the state Constitution that would provide another $120 million or more per year for bus and train service.

In Maple Grove, transit administrator Mike Opatz said that after the 52 percent ridership increase in that community over the past two years, "We have maxed out of budget source," he said. "We have maxed out our fleet. The options to come up with additional service now are next to nothing.

"We get calls and e-mails saying, 'Please add another trip -- don't you know we are standing on this bus?' "

As a temporary measure, Maple Grove has opened a park-and-ride lot in a Wal-Mart parking lot, hoping to intercept some drivers from the north before they reach the transit station.

It also may add bus trips at smaller, less popular nearby lots in hopes of luring some drivers away from the station.

But on the first day of snow the station ramp is likely to fill up, Opatz said. He will have staff available to let commuters know if it's full. "But at this point, I can't say I will have an alternative for them -- they might have to drive that day."

Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711 • lblake@startribune.com

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/782338.html