$2 a day is highway robbery. They have thousands of spots at that station, tell me how it can possibly cost $5K a day to build, maintain, and patrol that parking facility? The answer is it doesn't.

Higher BART fares, higher parking, soon the unions will be knocking on your door demanding contributions. This is literally hiway robbery.

"$2 a day is highway robbery." $2 ... a day. Robbery. Let's look at it another way: if you are a commuter to an 8 hours/day job, an hour away, your car will be there for 10 hours. Twenty cents an hour. Highway robbery. Can you find a parking meter that charges that little?

Have you run the economics on the acquisition of land, construction, maintenance (hell, just the painting of it cost $540K (308 years, at 20 cents an hour), staffing, patrolling etc. etc.? If so, Please show your work.

Or, you could look at alternatives -- can you find a parking space in SF for less than 10-15 times your lousy two bucks? And that's After the 80 mile RT @ 46 cents/mile if you drive a medium sedan (AAA est., 2009) = $36.80/day plus bridge toll of another $5?

BART's GM got a $20,000 raise. That raise alone equals 4,166 parking space days. Highway robbery.

Feeling silly yet? I think I understand why you choose to post anonymously.

I agree with Pot Belly and Perbolley! Fair is Fair. All is well on the Western Front. A chicken in every pot!

VIVA FOREVER!

Incidentally, the GM got a large raise so now pay up!

Talk to the Hand! crybaby...a $20,000 raise for what?

First of all a person using a ridiculous pseudonym such as Hiram Porbelley is in no position to lambaste anyone for posting anonymously. Let's get that out of the way right now. You are posting equally anonymously, just trying to be highbrow with it. Which is annoying, so knock it off.

Your stupid analogy rests on the flawed premise of the individual fee. It doesn't have anything to do with a meaningless comparison to some other fee like a metered parking spot. There are THOUSANDS of spots. BART has owned this land for years, and it was acquired on the cheap and already paid for, so suggesting that land acquisition fees for it should be included in the "space rent" every day for eternity is a dumb idea.

And as mentioned, each individual user is only responsible for a tiny fraction of the overall expenses of maintenance and construction. Remember, the fact that acquisition and construction costs are one time expenses, which surely have long been recovered. How much do you think it costs to build a parking lot anyway? You make it sound like its some kind of major capital project. Its flat dirt you pour asphalt on.

They will be collecting at *least* $5K a day from parking at Pleasanton (there are over 2500 spots). Please tell me where that money is going. Paint for $500K...I don't know what needs painted, are you talking about the lines on the ground, for pete's sake? You're implying it costs $200 to paint a couple of lines on the ground? $500K/2500. Don't blame us for the mismanagement and incompetence of government contracting. Everyone in full possession of their faculties can intuit that it doesn't cost $200 to paint two lines on the ground. If it did, we'd all be in the "painting lines on the ground" business and living it up.

I've been slaving, SLAVING! over how best to respond to a guy with so few real problems that he can work up a vein-busting tantrum over a perceived, anonymous, internet slight, over a two-dollar parking fee. I must say I'm envious, although I was really looking forward to seeing his spreadsheets.

So, how's this: "Oh yeah, Internet tough guy? Sez you!"

I've experienced life's ups and downs. Once I was living high off the hog while filling in after dastardly unionists walked off the job. Then they called me a scab and came back and took my job. Corruption all about! Now they're trying to rob everyone blind with $2 parking hikes. Let's be honest and use our real names on this site in stead of Hiram Perrbolly which is obviously not a real name.

I think that "Union Hater" is Self Hating. How can anybody possibly be so angry towards working Americans, union member or not?''

Jobs exist so that people that want to work work...duh...

Who would you rather receive the $2 parking fee? O Cholo Mio or BART?

i rest my case...

How come nobody is trashing the GM who got a $20,000 raise?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...BUSTED!

Rsising the parking fee does help. It make people think of carpooling to Bart or even carpooling to work without using Bart. Why not make the parking fee a big number, say $50 a day, only the rich would be parking and using Bart. A guess thats the alternative.

What ticks me off is that it virtually impossible to get a parking space at any of the Pleasanton/Dublin lots after 7 am. This would not be the case if there were not so many people from the Central Valley parking there to ride BART. Now the transportation honchos want Alameda County residents to pay for upgrading the I580/I680 interchange with a tax increase so people from the Central Valley can have a better commute to Santa Clara County. Why do we keep bearing the brunt for people from the Central Valley? Contact the Alameda County Supervisors and your City Council to raise hell, and don't vote for the sales tax increase!

I would just drive because it is now cheaper. When you consider 2 dollars to park and then the increased fares when you do the math if you have a car with decent gas mileage you are better off driving the vehicle not to mention avoiding the filth and stink on those trains. Just drive as it is better.

Dear Jd: Please, just do the math, on a round-trip commute to Montgomery Station, SF.

BART: fare 11.50 + parking $2 = $13.50 + to/from BART = 10 miles RT @ 46.4 cents = $18.14 total

Driving: 80 miles RT @ 46.4/mi = $37.12 + $5 toll + $20 parking = $62.12, total.

And that's for a small sedan, per AAA 2013. Web Link

Off by more than a factor of 3X -- not bad for the internet.

a year ago the parking at Pleasanton/dublin was a $1. 100% increase in less than a year. we are a bunch of suckers.

Yuri yuri yuri,

Oakland Arena baby

4 people driving to the arena is a lot cheaper than taking BART. Only funny people work in the city.

What -- better, but if you four are going to a Warriors game, it's probably still cheaper to park free at San Leandro BART than pay to park in the e-Coli lot. Multiple passengers are a good thing, but a rare thing, and I'm reasonably certain that Jd did not have that situation in-mind.

WITH THE $2 PARKING FEE - IT WILL NOW COST ME OVER $10 TO COMMUTE TO OAKLAND!
OAKLAND- NOT SF!

have you considered car sharing...charge per person to make it fair...otherwise you're in deep do-do...have you considered retiring?

i rest my case...

BART fares + parking still represent a pretty good deal, when you consider the cost of parking at your destination and the time spent commuting on the freeways and on the Bay Bridge.

The problem with parking is that there isn't enough of it. In a recent poll, Bay Area commuters ranked the lack of BART parking as the #1 commute problem for 2013. BART isn't planning to do much about the problem. Here's what BART spokesperson James Allison said: "Why not build more parking? Do we use land to build more parking, which is not only a money loser for BART but encourages driving, or do we consider ways to provide some parking but not necessarily a spot for every rider?"

Of course the commuters from the Central Valley use the Dublin/Pleasanton station as their entry point. Small wonder why the lots on both sides of the freeway, at both local stations are full early in the AM.

Just do what I did. I am 68 with the usual age ailments. Got tired of watching young and fat people park in handicap and then jump out of the car and walk smoothly so I saw my Doc and then DMV and got one also.

I've just sent Bill's post into the police/DMV/State Attorney General, Sacramento. Handicapped people deserve priority. Unless you're handicapped, you don't deserve one. If they choose, they can track you down.

BUSTED!

the number of handicap parking spaces occupied not only at the bart stations but also elsewhere. the gov't hands them out like a PEZ dispenser. The best location is in August bernal park on the hiking trails. Really?

I'd gladly pay $2 day if I could be guarenteed to find a parking place! They are almost all gone -- at both Pleasanton Dublin stations in both Pleasanton and Dublin lots by around 7:45 in the morning.
Where the heck do people park after that??? Aside from the tiny handfull that open at 10 if you can wait around til then. More parking needed!!!

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