Quote:
Originally Posted by glowrock
Yes, the park and ride lots are free... There have been some discussions over making people not within the RTD district pay for a sticker to use the facilities, but those discussions haven't exactly been fruitful, to say the least...
Aaron (Glowrock)
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Yeah, the obvious followup question is whether the added revenue from charging for parking would offset the decrease in ridership. I get the sense with most of these LRT systems, however, that the goal of "congestion reduction" is paramount and the only reason the ballot measures were improved in the first place; thus, the ideal is to maximize the number of cars taken off the road, rather than maximizing efficiency/revenue etc. Count yourselves lucky that parking enforcement is lax, as it is INSANE (and an important revenue source) around these parts. Park n Ride lots are fee based, and the surrounding streets are all residential permit parking to discourage commuters parking outside the lots.
Interesting issues, all around, because of course the huge free surface lots are taking up land that would otherwise be suited to TOD; but again, if the goal is congestion mitigation, you get the cars off the clogged highway first and foremost.