Who Pays for “Free” Park-and-Ride Parking?

Park-and-ride lots, writes Matt Steele at Streets.mn, are the "darling infrastructure of the transit planning profession." In exchange for providing a parking spot at no charge to suburban commuters, says Steele, transit systems can increase ridership.

But "free" suburban parking isn't such a sweet deal for everyone. Steele writes that a Metro Transit park-and-ride expansion at the Maplewood Mall station, outside Minneapolis, cost around $24,000 per space to build. Meanwhile, transit riders in the city proper continue to be shortchanged.

Taking maintenance, lighting and other upkeep expenses into account, and considering that many spaces go unused, Steele says Maplewood Mall commuters would need to pay a $9.50 parking fee to cover costs.

"Suburban park and riders are clearly not paying $9.50 to park before paying an additional fare to get on the bus," writes Steele. "Someone else is paying to subsidize their car storage habits. And you’re it."

Elsewhere on the Streetsblog Network: Bike Portland reports that Elly Blue's "Wheelwomen Switchboard" is up and running; a guest writer for NRDC Switchboard surveys the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, after a 25-year absence; and Copenhagenize discovers that playing in the streets of Los Angeles is actually against the law.