BART’s parking problem: Maddening search when lots are full

On a recent morning at BART’s West Dublin/Pleasanton Station, a familiar dance occurred. Commuters pulled into the parking garages on either side of Interstate 580, hopeful that a few spots remained open.

At some point every weekday morning, the garages fill up. But there is no way for BART riders to know exactly when that happens.

So the drivers circled up the ramps for five floors to see if spots remained on the roof. Once the lots were jammed, commuters who missed out had to circle back down and go elsewhere.

BART has no system for notifying passengers when most lots fill up, but that may be changing.

"It’s frustrating," said Myra O’Ferrall, 52, of San Ramon, one of those who had to turn around on the top floor of the parking garage on the Dublin side of the highway.

"It’s an incredible waste of time," said Mark Boyce, 51, who drives to BART from his home in Tracy so he can ride into Oakland. "I drive an hour and a half to get here. The last thing I want to do is drive around looking for parking in a full parking lot with other people doing the same thing."

According to BART officials, the agency is working on a solution at several stations.

Currently, only the parking garages at the Pleasant Hill Station and the MacArthur Station in Oakland have signs alerting drivers when the daily-use spots are gone. Those signs, said Bob Franklin, who oversees BART parking, are triggered by sensors in parking spaces.

The sensors are placed at 20 of the lots’ least desirable spots, Franklin said. If 12 are filled, the signs warn that parking is no longer available. The signs shut off at 10 a.m. — when unused permit parking becomes available to daily-use riders.

Funds for improvement

This year, BART allocated 275,000ドル toward communicating parking availability in as many of its 33 parking lots as possible. Some have garages, some have surface parking and others have both.

The agency is considering various technologies for the job, but the prices can be steep.

One option is to put in more sensor networks like the ones in place at the Pleasant Hill and MacArthur stations, which cost 20,000ドル to 40,000,ドル Franklin said. BART is also looking at a system that runs about 3,000,ドル in which an Android phone with a camera is pointed at an area of up to six spaces that typically fill last.

BART is also considering whether to use information from its parking validation machines to determine when spots are full and then alerting drivers.

Some riders would welcome signs at garage entrances. That would remove the need for a freelance strategy that many have adopted, in which drivers circling down the ramps give a firm head-shake to those on their way up.

"That’d be great," said O’Ferrall of the sign idea, just before her loop back down the floors of the garage.

Some prefer text alerts

Boyce, though, said a sign wouldn’t do freeway commuters like him much good. Instead, he said, the agency should text him.

"If I’m driving down the road and I get a text that there’s no parking at BART Dublin/Pleasanton, but there is X amount of parking (somewhere else), then I can go there and save myself the headache," he said.

Franklin said BART will be exploring just that — sending texts and e-mails via an opt-in advisory system at the two stations that already have signs. That technology, he said, could ultimately be taken to other stations.

Franklin said at least four more stations will have signs — and possibly a text or e-mail advisory system — within a year, and that BART is choosing among the following stations: Dublin/Pleasanton, Fruitvale in Oakland, Walnut Creek, Concord, Daly City and Colma.

The goal, Franklin said, is "to inform passengers when parking is available, as well as to prevent people from unnecessarily searching for a parking space when the facility is already at capacity."

What’s not working

Issue: Drivers looking for parking in most BART garages have no way of knowing when all the spots are full.

What’s been done: BART officials said the agency has allocated 275,000ドル toward communicating parking availability in as many of its 33 parking lots as possible.

Who’s responsible: Grace Crunican, BART general manager, (510) 464-6065, gcrunic@bart.gov.

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