No parking at both Dublin BARTs

The short answer to your question is, no, unfortunately at this point Bart has no plans to address the parking shortage.

I wrote Bart to complain about the sudden shortage of spaces the week they closed the last 400 spaces. I didn't like the stock response I kept hearing booth agents giving to riders complaining at the station "oh, we didn't own those spaces, they were sold several years ago to a private company, who generously agreed to rent the spaces for parking while they delayed development."

When I wrote inquiring how they plan to solve the problem, I was basically told "nope, sorry, you'll have to figure it out, we have no plans to build new parking." Here is an excerpt from their response:

"Although we would wish to expand BART parking facilities there and elsewhere, the funding does not exist for the acquisition of additional land area or the construction of other garages. At this time there are no grants being extended for development of parking areas."

I do appreciate the polite tone with which I was addressed, however obviously this wasn't what I wanted to hear. I find it funny that they're not going to address this problem while at the same time supporting concepts like "ride Bart to spare the air!" I was told that passengers should "investigate other methods where possible to share rides to the station or find other ways of getting to the station without involving a single occupant automobile." In a perfect world I think this would be just fine, but these options aren't feasible for some people - for example, some people must drop kids off at school on the way to Bart.

It's not like tons of people are all of a sudden going to think, "Eureka! That's a great idea, I'll just walk, ride a bus, bike, or carpool to Bart!" In reality, people who have lost the ability to park are going to say "screw it, I'll just drive into the city." Consequently and sadly, I really think Bart is going to loose a huge portion of passengers who, based on their personal schedule requirements, must arrive after the lot fills in the morning. People will realize it's much more efficient to battle rush hour and just drive into the city rather than waste an hour looking for a spot at the station.

I'm pretty annoyed and disappointed about this. Personally, I've had to adjust my work schedule so that I now arrive to work an hour earlier than my coworkers. Of course, it's not like I can leave early, I just have a work day that's now an hour longer, without getting paid extra for it because I'm salaried.

Bart's response that I kept hearing along the lines of, "well, it's not our fault, the lot was privately owned and they waited until now to close it" doesn't work for me, because but wasn't Bart the ones who sold the lot in the first place? Why would you sell a huge amount of parking when you KNEW for years this station had a parking shortage?

with all that condensed housing in Dublin, one would think BART would have thought through the station parking a little more or at least provide buses until BART quits running. I live on the PBP line and can get up to the station but can't get back home. You have to be on the Oakland side of the Caldecott to get any decent bus service after 8:00 p.m. I end up going in an hour earlier usually so I can get a spot when I work a day shift. BART needs to provide more parking for its patrons. Selling off parking lots and not replacing the spaces is not acceptable.

When the lots fill up that fast, BART needs to increase the parking fee.

It's clear evidence that the price is set below what the market will bear. BART needs to slowly ramp up the parking fees until there are at least one or two spaces available at most stations throughout the day.

West Dublin/ Pleasanton (Dublin garage) has been getting worse and worse for parking in recent months too . . probably handling overflow from Dublin/ Pleasanton since they took the spots out of commission there. When the W. Dublin station first opened, I got a monthly permit. However, I noticed there was ALWAYS ample daily parking available, even at 9:50 AM, so I deemed the monthly permit a waste of money and canceled it after 3 months.

Over the course of the last few months, the fill time has been creeping earlier and earlier. This morning (Tuesday, June 12) it was full at 7:25 AM, probably the earliest yet. Drivers arriving on the roof at 7:30 had startled looks on thier faces as they began the long drive back down the ramp to begin a fruitless search for neighborhood parking and inevitably miss their intended train.

I've re-applied for a monthly permit but suspect it'll be years until they reach me on the waiting list.