The Southwest Corridor could become the most parking-heavy rail line every created by TriMet. Even parking-lite planning scenarios would spend as much as $100 million on parking garages.
Michael Andersen sounds a warning about plans to build $168 million worth of parking garages along the Southwest Corridor light rail line in Greater Portland.
Greater Portland’s “Southwest Corridor” line, as the route mostly along Barbur Boulevard and Interstate 5 is known, could become the most parking-heavy rail line in the history of TriMet, Portland’s regional transit agency. Tucked into one of the scenarios for the $2.7 billion, 13-station project are five free-to-use parking garages with up to 3,350 structured parking spaces among them.
According to Andersen, the parking heavy plan is an example of what not to do. So much so, Andersen breaks down the math of how much not parking that $168 million could fund: "to build or acquire roughly 1,000 below-market-rate homes along the line; to install networks of protected bike lanes for miles in every direction around each proposed rail station; or to double the scale of TriMet’s big 2018 regionwide bus service improvement for the next 12 years."
A detailed and lengthy case against the parking rage proposals follows.
FULL STORY: PORTLAND MIGHT SPEND TWICE AS MUCH ON FREE PARKING LOTS AS AFFORDABLE HOUSING ALONG ITS NEXT RAIL LINE
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research