1998

Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Thursday, October 29, 1998
Author: GORDON OLIVER of the Oregonian Staff
Summary: With Sunset and Gateway, the last places to park on the MAX line
before town, filled to the gills, Tri-Met is suggesting alternatives
Tri-Met's park-&-ride lot at the Sunset Transit Center fills up most
mornings at 8:30 a.m., leaving potential mid-morning MAX riders in a futile
pursuit of parking spaces.


By adding more parking spaces, Tri-Met probably would draw more riders to
the already popular westside MAX line. But the agency can't. It made a
decision before the structure was built to save $395,000 in the $3.7 million
budget by using a configuration that doesn't support additional floors.

Now Tri-Met officials are embarking on a plan that asks drivers to car pool
or take a bus to the transit center or drive to another park-&-ride lot.

Tri-Met construction management officials were aware that parking demand
might quickly exceed supply. Metro, the regional government, predicted
before construction that there would be demand for as many as 1,000 spaces
by 2005.

Money wasn't the only reason Tri-Met officials closed off the option for
expansion, said Neil McFarlane, Tri-Met's executive director of capital
projects and a top manager for westside light-rail construction. At the time
it was making decisions on the structure's size and design, Tri-Met was
worried about ballooning costs of the westside light-rail tunnels.

But McFarlane says other practical and philosophical reasons existed to
limit parking at the site.

Space held for development

Tri-Met had expected a mix of retail, commercial and residential development
of surrounding land owned by the Peterkort family. Tri-Met didn't want to
use up capacity on the local road network to feed the park-&-ride lot,
reducing the potential for that development, McFarlane said. So far, there
has been no development on the Peterkort land surrounding the garage .

Tri-Met had learned from experience at the Gateway Transit Center on the
eastside MAX line that it is tough to meet demand at park-&-ride lots that
offer the closest free parking to downtown Portland. Both Gateway and Sunset
are the last large parking sites before the trains make a final run into
downtown Portland.

The 1991 Metro analysis for the Sunset parking structure that had predicted
a demand for as many as 1,000 spaces by 2005 also noted that about 400 of
those park-&-ride lot users could reasonably park at another lot closer to
their home, said Andy Cotugno, Metro's transportation director. "It's the
last point in the funnel where you get an express operation," he said.

In fact, crowding has worsened at the Gateway Transit Center since the
westside light-rail line opened last month. The parking lot had 590 parking
spaces when the rail line opened in 1986. It now has 826 spaces that fill up
regularly.

The situation leaves Tri-Met in the awkward position of encouraging people
to use the light-rail system, but in some cases without making MAX as
convenient as possible for people to use.

"Tri-Met's intent is to allow everyone who wants to use the system a chance
to do that," McFarlane said. "We also recognize there are real limitations
in terms of our ability to do that at some locations" such as the Sunset and
Gateway transit centers.

In addition to urging commuters to car pool or bus to transit centers or use
other park-&-ride lots, Tri-Met is converting some spaces in the Sunset
structure to car pool-only, administered through a sign-up program with the
agency.

The westside line has nine park-&-ride lots with 3,837 spaces, and on
average they are filled to 59 percent of capacity, said Jan Schaeffer,
Tri-Met spokeswoman.

Turning to street parking

Some commuters are making choices that create new problems. On the eastside,
cars fill local streets, and some use the adjoining Gateway Shopping Center
lot, which is officially off-limits to MAX users.

On the westside, people are parking on streets and private parking lots near
stops without park-& ride stations. Cars are showing up all day on streets
outside the Cedar Hills Shopping Center, a convenient location south of the
Sunset Highway due to a pedestrian overpass.

Joe Kerzel, manager of a Dennis' Seven Dees nursery near the south end of
the pedestrian overpass, said people are parking in front of fire hydrants
and at crazy angles near loading zones. "Whoever is in charge of parking
needs to come out and look at it," he said.
Caption: B/W Photo by ROBERT BACH of The Oregonian staff Graphics Chart by
The Oregonian and Source: Tri-Met -- MAX park-and-ride lots