.
Feedback

Circling for Late Morning BART Parking Spots

What's the secret for finding a parking spot in the late morning?

Patch fanned a Facebook fracas Tuesday with an inquiry about late morning park at Walnut Creek BART.

It seems that's a sore point with many readers. We asked Facebook readers this: "Today, Patch editor David Mills drove to Walnut Creek BART to catch an 11:20 a.m. train to San Francisco. However, the parking lots were all full and that 11:20 a.m. went whizzing by, so Dave ended up driving into The City. Has anyone else experienced this -- the BART lots filling up, even after 10 a.m.?"


The answer is clearly yes. A sampling of Facebook commenters:

  • Most certainly. Attempting to park at 9:30AM on a Tuesday, nothing at PH, WC, or Laf! Nothing!
  • Why would it be emptier later? People get there before 830am and leave their cars there all day and bart into sf. PH fills up very early.
  • That's why I drop my husband off and pick him up every day, out of necessity not convenience. There needs to be more Park n Ride options....
  • I have better luck (late morning) at Lafayette. You have to park very far away, but I still find spaces.
  • certainly have. Next step is a drive to Lafayette, if that's full as well, drive to the city. There are some pay garages around bart in WC, but I have not explored those. And don't park at Target, they do mark cars and you might find a ticket - or no car (towed) when getting back.
  • This is one big reason more people don't use public transportation, wasn't built to handle the quantity of "public" we have in the bay area. And don't tell me to use a bus to get to BART, that's definitely not a solution for most of us. We should have taken a lesson from New York before building BART.
  • I totally agree. It turns Bart into a commuter train only since if anyone wants to go into city in week to shop, etc then its impossible to park and then all trains after 9am are empty cause nobody gets on :) Bart is weird. It also needs to run later on Friday and Saturdays otherwise it forces people to drink and drive. Bart needs to listen to what peopel want, not what makes it's life easier.

So tell us in the comments below what your secret is for finding the elusive BART parking spot.

CT- West August 29, 2012 at 12:24 am
There are so many complaints about BART that I would need two pages.
Maybe if they all were not so overpaid it would be different, but do not hold your breath.
JM Mom August 29, 2012 at 02:37 am
Needs to be said: those cloth seats are G-R-O-S-S gross.
Mark Meuser August 29, 2012 at 03:13 am
I cannot count the number of times that I have had to go into the city in the late morning and I ended up driving in because there was no parking at any of the local Barts.
Scott Bowhay August 29, 2012 at 03:39 am
And...certain BART employees are "entitled" to park free at the Oakland West BART Station (where the public pays $5+ every frickin day...$7 or $8 in offsite lots)...This morning, a Mercedes with the classic Orange employee handbook displayed on the dash to "wink-wink" the parking patrol, and a couple of other very nice cars (Lexus and Infiniti) also parked in the passenger loading and taxi zone...these employees have it made!!! Luxury car salaries, perks ("Premium Parking", and what else?)...I wouldn't venture a guess on other benefits (minimal?), but judging by the huge multiple of fare increases to inflation, let's just say the evidence says the money isn't going into an improved or reasonably maintained passenger experience...
Wayne Lanier PhD August 29, 2012 at 02:07 pm
The real problem is the suburban mentality, where transportation is spelled "car". Having lived in New York, London, Chicago, and San Francisco... and now in Walnut Creek... I see clearly how planning is hampered by the "car" axiom. If we started by requiring developers to plan for public transportation before getting any planning permit we would not find ourselves repeating the same "rectangular wheel" mistake over and over again. Instead, we start with a freeway. When it becomes clogged, we spend massively to expand it. By the completion of the expansion, development has produced the extra cars to clog the expansion.
Along the way, public transportation becomes an afterthought. In recession, the first utility cut is public transportation. This failure extends from neighborhood to town to county to state to the country. A liberal-minded administration could have turned the present on-going "great recession" around more quickly with a vast public works project targeted at transportation infrastructure, including public transportation. In the end, expanding BART parking will be of little help. What we really need is a well-designed network of public transportation to reliably and efficiently deliver passengers to the BART stations. Unfortunately, the way we pay for such public works defeats the project in favor of... you guessed it, the car.
Ian Lipnicky (still a SportsFan) August 29, 2012 at 02:13 pm
Who in their right mind would park in West Oakland?
20 year resident August 29, 2012 at 02:20 pm
The motorcycle parking spaces are great. They're free, they're right up front, and space is always available. Get a little 250 or a Vespa, they're cheap and it'll change your life for the good. You'll have complete flexibility going to and from Bart, going home after work will be more fun, and you'll get 80mpg doing so. Ditch the car, really!
Jose August 29, 2012 at 02:21 pm
We don't all drive a Cadillac Escalade. For peace of mind, your commuter vehicle should look like an abandoned Rent a Wreck. That also demonstrates that you are so self-assured that you don't care about status vehicles. The chicks will love you for your apparent nobility. It's a win win.
Regular Guy August 29, 2012 at 02:23 pm
Wayne, there has never been a public transit system nearly as cost-effective as the car for Lamorinda and other areas with sub-urban population densities.
Traditional public transportation is a dinosaur. The future is smart ride sharing, using smart phones to match up strangers in real time for transportation that takes them where they want, when they want. No fixed-line, fixed-schedule system could ever match that adaptability.
Jose August 29, 2012 at 02:23 pm
BTW, that was a reference to parking in West Oakland, not directed at SB.
Ian Lipnicky (still a SportsFan) August 29, 2012 at 02:30 pm
@Moribund- You think they won't knock you in the head in West Oakland for a Rent a Wreck? I wouldn't park there whether I was rolling in my Escalade or puttering along in my '72 VW Bug with the vinyl seats, AM radio, and no A/C.
Steve Lundgren August 29, 2012 at 03:51 pm
Regular Guy, Wayne is right and mass transit works and you wouldn't want to live in lamorinda and commute to the city without BART existing weather you use it or not. they co-exist and in this case work together. Wayne, welcome to Walnut Creek. The low accessibility to BART due to low levels of parking is because of Measure A. Measure A is the dinosour in the room and severly limited the height of buildings around the BART station. that is why the parking structure is only 4 storys high and completely full by 8:AM. this local self centered piece of legislature put the screws to the cummuters traveling through the 680/24 interchange and through lamorinda to SF. The draconian height limit near the BART station also explains why there is a new car dealership 100 yards from the station and not higher density developement.
obiwan August 29, 2012 at 03:59 pm
If you think parking is bad now, wait until the City approves the BART Transit Village and 225 spaces are LOST during the initial construction phase.
obiwan August 29, 2012 at 04:06 pm
Steve - Measure A can be overridden with a vote of the residents. If there was a proposal for an 8-story parking garage at BART, I suspect it would have a pretty good chance of passing.
Have you considered that parking at the WC BART station may be limited because it serves the interests of the WC Chamber of Commerce? The Chamber doesn't want any mid-day patrons taking BART to San Francisco to shop, they want them shopping in Walnut Creek. This also explains why our City Council isn't DEMANDING more BART parking with the proposed Transit Village - their Chamber of Commerce overlords don't want it.
Chris Nicholson August 29, 2012 at 04:26 pm
People like cars. Why fight that? There is plenty of capacity on BART and freeways to move people where they want to go, just not exactly WHEN they want to go. A "free" solution (which the market is already auto-magically doing) is to simply time-shift discretionary trips to avoid peak hours. Some work trips can be staggered as well. Not all, but at the margin they can. There is a "market clearing" price for congestion. If you expand roads or public transit with a view toward making it painless to get into the city at (for example) 8:30am instead of 9:30am, then more and more people will revert to 8:30am until the clearly level of congestion returns.
Since adding peak transit capacity costs tens of billions, and allowing self-policing time-shifting is essentially "free," then the choice is simple. (I acknowledge that the requirement to time-shift away from "preferred" (if preferred=peak) is not "free," but the free market will tend to cause the least valuable and least "costly" time-shifting to occur....) Finally, more BART parking (cheap, but not free) would ABSOLUTELY help this. Everyone who shows up to a BART station at 11am should be able to find parking-- but they can't.
Steve Lundgren August 29, 2012 at 08:54 pm
obiwan, there shouldn't have to be a vote for what is appropriete for a mass transit station. Measure A forces expensive ballot measures for anything beyond it's straight jacketed parameters. Its been a disaster for commuters.
And sorry, but I don't think there is any City Council conspiracy about anything regarding shopping.
DMcMahon August 30, 2012 at 02:02 am
walnut creek has poor transportation options. why isnt there buses coming down ygnacio valley road every ten minutes to get riders to bart? walking 5 miles is not a viable option for many. vespa is a great answer but costs money...
DMcMahon August 30, 2012 at 02:05 am
and many dont know but showing up at walnut creek bart at 7:45am is usually not an option either as there are no spots by then. I feel like I should be able to stand down at a corner at ygnacio and get a lift from someone.....park and rides need to be explored as well. the city council doesnt seem motivated by the needs of the residents.
Crowley August 30, 2012 at 11:54 am
I wish our bus system were more robust in the burbs. I have taken the bus to Orinda BART from Moraga, but I need to drive to the Safeway/McCaulous lot, park there...and time it right, so I don't miss the bus and have to wait another 40 minutes!
obiwan August 30, 2012 at 05:07 pm
If it weren’t for Measure A, downtown Walnut Creek would look like downtown Oakland by now. The City Council regularly gives permission to developers to cut down protected trees, ignore setbacks and even tear up the General Plan to create the developer's own standards for height and density (as is being done at 1500 No. California). They even weasel around Measure A whenever they can. To start with, they allow up to a 62 foot tall building where there is a supposed 50 foot height limit. The extra height is claimed to be for “architectural features”, but practically everything is now considered an “architectural feature”. And then they measure height from the base of the building or the highest point on the lot – whichever is more advantageous to the developer. In the case of the proposed Arroyo Apartments, the 50 foot height limit is being measured from the top of the 100 year floodplain - a spot 7 feet ABOVE the sidewalk!!!
Measure A was voted in by the residents because our Council can’t be trusted to uphold community standards.
Steve Lundgren August 30, 2012 at 06:58 pm
obiwan, fear about the downtown looking like Oakland is quite shrill. Walnut Creek is one of the very few citys on the west coast that has a law to quash developement rather than allow reasonable developement within a general plan. general plans work and are workable. measure A was designed so that ANY developement would easily violate one of its parameters causing a stir and an expensive vote. The commenters above are rightly asking for more buss options which simply won't happen with the current density - mandated by measure A. The area north of Ygnacio, around the BART station, should have been developed with by now with much higher density. instead it remains delapidated except for the car dealership which is poor stewardship of an area that should be by now fostering better regional coordination for cummuters through the area and beyond. No place to park at WC BART impacts the tunnell traffic and the bay bridge. Sad but true.
michael frederick August 31, 2012 at 05:55 am
Fact check: The ballot measure cost = 5 parking spaces.
michael frederick August 31, 2012 at 06:01 am
Fact check: Apts up the ying-yang are in the pipeline. None violated Measure A or one of its parameters, necessitating "an expensive vote."
srl99 October 5, 2012 at 01:58 pm
Ride BART during the rush hours and you will see there is no lack of customers. There's a lack of common courtesy and a lack of seats, but no shortage of customers.
The system is full, something needs to be done - and it's not just suburban parking. Walnut Creek City Council is _certainly_ wed to the South downtown shopping clique - just look at the _free_ Shopping Shuttle which serves only to ferry workers and customers to the Nordstrom's area.
Chris Michaels October 30, 2012 at 04:12 pm
Why is it so difficult to do the right thing if you're a public servant? It's clear what the right thing to do is regarding Bart parking in WC.
michael frederick October 30, 2012 at 04:36 pm
I'm just guessing, here -- because they're not "public servants"? "Public servant" is a euphemism for something much worse and more private?

Newsletter & Alerts

Get the best stories each day and important breaking news

Subscribe

Not from Walnut Creek Patch? Find your Local Patch »

Note Article
Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
Joe H June 15, 2013 at 11:17 am
Chem trails ... You tube..
inquiring mind June 15, 2013 at 02:22 pm
The trails I saw at you tube, while bigger than vapor trails, were still very puny compared to theRead More banner cloud formations I saw this, banners stretching straight from East to West (or vice versa) from one horizon to the other. May guess is that they were over 500 feet wide, and I'm still inclined to think the straight-line winds that made the derecho in the East pushed backwards a straight banner of visible water vapor (ie, clouds). Compare the physics to the x-rays that are pushed backwards when matter is sucked into the spiral of a black hole, a new discovery this week.
Jim Caroompas (Editor) June 10, 2013 at 12:39 pm
Beau is a blogger, and his opinions are his own. We encourage Walnut Creek Patch users to startRead More their own blogs, and that would include movie reviews.
Beau Behan June 10, 2013 at 01:35 pm
Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it. Hi Julio, As we all know, Even the late movie guru, Roger Ebert'sRead More fans, sometimes, did not agree with his assessment. This is the beauty of a filmic conversation. There is really no right or wrong. It is highly subjective. Even Rotten Tomatoes sometimes do not agree with Top Critics from around the world.
Julie Jepsen-Grant June 4, 2013 at 05:09 am
Tonights meeting at 7 p.m. City Hall Agenda Item The following is copy/paste from Agenda availableRead More on City's Website. Attachment: STATEMENT OF ISSUE: The library café opened in September 2012 with a Rental Commencement Date of October 1, 2013. Since the very beginning of operations, the tenant has struggled to meet the lease obligations and most recently requested waived rent through September 2013. Staff has negotiated an amendment to the lease that addresses City concerns and supports the tenant’s viability for success, and recommends the new terms to the Council for approval. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Approve and authorize the Mayor to execute an amendment to the lease agreement with Café Pica Deli, Inc. to adjust the monthly rent from $1,250 to $400 per month for the first twenty-four (24) months of the Initial Term; modify the “Percentage of Sales” revenue sharing provision in the agreement, as well as add flexibility to the hours of operation.
Julie Jepsen-Grant June 4, 2013 at 05:18 am
""The bottom line, she said, is that "we need to make sure that we're engaging inRead More financial education cradle to grave so that people have the skills they need." By CNBC's Kelley Holland.
Julie Jepsen-Grant June 6, 2013 at 05:31 am
What was the outcome of this agenda item?