The next phase of the Metro parking fee program was approved Thursday by the agency’s Board of Directors. The program began earlier this year when daily and monthly parking fees went into effect at three of the new Expo Line stations. (Staff report here)
With the approval, parking fees will be continued or implemented at the following stations:
•Expo Line: Expo/Bundy, Expo/Sepulveda, 17th/SMC and La Cienega/Jefferson.
•Gold Line: APU/Citrus, Irwindale, Atlantic.
•Red Line: Universal, North Hollywood.
•Metro would also have the option to later add fees at the Green Line’s Norwalk, Lakewood and Aviation stations and El Monte Station.
The goal is to implement the fees by April. The payment system will be automated and patrons will use their TAP cards to show they rode Metro.
The idea behind the program is help Metro better manage its parking — and to ensure that parking is being used by Metro patrons and that some spaces remain available at any time of the day. When Metro doesn’t charge anything for parking, a lot of non-transit users end up using the space. The fees help discourage that from happening and help raise dollars needed to maintain the lots and keep them safe.
Here’s the chart showing the fees at the stations in the program:
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
To Whom It May Concern:
Re: APU Citrus Station-
Please provide a yellow curb or circular drive for dial-a-ride, uber, taxi, and personal drop-offs and pick ups! There is no curb parking anywhere there at present so drop off and pick up occurs inside pkg structure; if pkg fee is implemented to enter the structure, street traffic will be backed up as drop off and pick ups must then illegally take place from the street lane. ?
Why not just put a metro pass/TAP card automated arm (or an armed security agent/police officer, better) to make sure that all incoming motorists have a valid TAP card and if they don’t…it will require them to pay for parking space, a new TAP card, and at least a two way ride? People with monthly passes will need not to pay because they have already paid their Metro transportation for the month. Furthermore, the TAP card perhaps can be enabled to only allow a potentially parking space abuser or new transit patron just a single time to park for the day in a given month…second and multiple attempts in the same month with the same TAP card will not be allowed but rather require the purchase of a weekly pass or monthly pass. Something like that. Of course it will slow down the entry of automobiles into the station…but something’s gotta give. What do y’all think?
Wow, with that increase, it’ll be cheaper to take an express bus. With that I’ll leave behind the literally cramped and barely standing room only of the Red Line (Metro & 7th Station) between 5 -6 PM and the unpleasantness of public transportation. If you want more riders, you need to make it more convenient not more expensive. I should have seen this coming after the privatization of the 110 fwy carpool lane (which runs in some of the poorest parts of LA, but is a tool road).
There is no way to get to APU/Citrus without driving. The station is located deep in a residential area and bus/shuttle services are too sparse.
Every commuter who drives there now will get dinged $3 per day since there is no street parking literally within a mile radius. It doesn’t even have a loading zone to drop off and pick up carpoolers.
How are poorer people who can’t afford the $3 hit going to ride the train to work?
Metro will even be charging for parking at Irwindale (the last parking resort for Azusa riders)–Metro is aggressively pushing riders back into their cars. Ridiculous.
First the HUGE sales tax increase. Then the increase in Fastrack fees. Now parking fees. I ride the gold line to save money. I pay the very reasonable senior fare. The Gold line is not close to my home. There is no public transportation that I can take to get to the APU/Citrus station, the closest to my home. Adding the parking fee to the cost forces me back into my car. Hello parking fee – Goodby Gold Line.
A better idea is to charge the parking fees only to those who park, but don’t ride metro and let the Metro riders park free. It is not necessary to have an attendant at the lot, Just swipe your Tap card to open the gate. If you don’t have a tap card you would have to buy one in order to use Metro parking. Saving the cost of a full time attendant would allow the money collected by non-metro users to go directly to metro.
P.S.
What a Whopper Metro told to get the new tax approved! The tax won’t keep the parking lots maintained?
It seems that Metro cares only about growing the bureaucracy through higher fees, more managers and supervisors, and long drawn out projects, while disincentivizing ridership. This is not what the people voted for.
Just changed from IWILLRIDE to No thanks! Driving the 30 mile round trip just got cheaper
[…] following article appeared in The Source on December 1, […]
Paying for parking is a mental shift that a lot of people have trouble making because we’re used to getting it for free and feel entitled to it being free.
There are actually a lot of really good arguments to charge for parking, like:
1) Parking isn’t free to build or maintain and users paying for parking gives Metro more resources to make transit better. I would argue that this need for better transit is the real barrier to ridership.
2) People who drive to Metro tend to be the richest users of the system and get free parking at the same time the vast majority of transit riders, who tend to be low income, are effectively paying to make that parking “free” through higher fares and higher taxes.
3) Free parking competes with bus services that provide access to rail stations.
4) Parking takes up land that could be dedicated to putting lots of stuff (housing, jobs, parks, etc.) near transit. Getting to that stuff is the reason why people move around in the first place.
That said, flat parking prices are bad. Metro should vary pricing based on demand. Parking should be cheaper at times of low demand
>>>>>>> and to ensure that parking is being used by Metro patrons
>>>>>>>and that some spaces remain available at any time of the day.
As best I can tell, I have never seen the Atlantic parking structure full.
If it does not fill why bother with charging? It seems unneeded if the
goal is to have “some spaces remain available at any time of the day.”
I really don’t like the idea of parking. I have been using metro since 1994 to go to work. I am already sacrificing my car for the program now you want to charge me to park. I work for CT can I get a discount at a CT owned lot? Can we use out metro pass to pay for parking? This will not stop people from leaving their cars… they will just pay the money. I even take metro to staples center for clippers day games… come on you guys, think of something else
Lea
The issues I asked about – accountability for the parking vendor with their call center and customer support, a grace period to allow people dropping people off or picking people off 20 or 30 minutes without getting charged, andmaking sure the machines are easy to use and do not violate Title VI – are not addressed. Read the winning proposal and we’ll see if Metro enforces the high minded promises of the contractor. https://lametro.nextrequest.com/documents/1365
Structured parking can cost $15,000/space or more to build. at $60/month*12 months= $720/year or more than 20 years to pay back. I’d rather have Metro spend their money on more service
LA Metro’s mission is: “Metro is responsible for the continuous improvement of an efficient and effective transportation system for Los Angeles County”. The Goldline extension was built into a, relatively, low density suburban area. The average LA County resident, Goldline extension rider has, guess based on my travel, a 5 to 10 mile commute to the nearest station and there’s almost certainly no geographic concentration within the potential rider pool. If the goal is improving efficient and effective transportation from east LA County, maximizing ridership on the Goldline should be a goal and, for the foreseeable future, that’s going to involve many potential riders needing to drive to the stations.
It’s clear LA Metro hates parking structures and this “parking fee program” is another instance of them trying to push potential riders away from using the extremely limited parking that was built, but if they were truly following their mission statement expanding parking options, at least with the Goldline extension, SHOULD be a priority.
This is a terrible idea. We want more people Using the Metro and not driving. How about building some structures?
I use the 17th/SMC Expo Line station daily and I am a monthly parking pass holder. I pay $39 monthly for parking and have been doing so since May when the line opened. Now my cost will jump to $59, over 50% increase! Disappointed.
“The idea behind the program is help Metro better manage its parking — and to ensure that parking is being used by Metro patrons and that some spaces remain available at any time of the day. When Metro doesn’t charge anything for parking, a lot of non-transit users end up using the space.”
At Irwindale, seriously?! There’s NOTHING around the Irwindale station structure for non-transit users to want to park at the station. In fact, Goldline riders are parking on the streets all around the station due to the inadequate size of the structure at the station. The Irwindale station is perfectly situated for commuters in the surrounding area to catch the Goldline and the available space at the station would have made it quite easy to build a structure at least twice the size of the one that was built. That the designers of the Goldline extension didn’t see or ignored that is beyond my ability to understand. This smells much more like a straight up money grab by Metro to me and will no doubt result in more street parking unless the City of Irwindale starts to crackdown. Is Metro interested in growing ridership or suppressing it?
how will you account for temporary dropoffs at these stations say for somebody wanting to get to the norwalk station to catch the train to lax via using uber or lyft