Jun 26, 2008 5:10 pm US/Eastern
Parking Spots Hard To Find At MARC Stations
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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More commuters are opting for public transportation and that's making parking spots hard to come by.
Oil futures shot above $140 Thursday after OPEC's president said crude prices could rise well above $150 a barrel this year and Libya said it may cut oil production.
Some drivers did not wait for another record-breaker to can their cars, at least for part of their trip.
Weijia Jiang reports more commuters are opting for public transportation.
The MTA says the number of those commuters is also record-breaking, and they all need somewhere to park. The problem is, for now, the number of spots is staying the same.
The jammed MARC train parking lots are all too familiar for commuters who are fighting for the slim pickings.
There are three lines on the MARC train. They can take some riders all the way out to Martinsburg, W. Va. to the west and Perryville to the east.
A 2007 MARC growth plan shows there are 30,000 passenger trips a day with a six percent increase in rides a year for the past decade. But as that number goes up, commuters face a new headache.
"Providing enough parking is one of the biggest challenges with MARC. I mean that's the nature of a MARC rider. The stations are spread out and so people generally drive to them," said Henry Kay with the MTA.
Now commuters are starting to spill into residential areas to hunt for parking.
"Some days I can't park on this street in front of my house. I have a parking pad in the back of my house, but sometimes commuters actually block that so I've had to call the police on them," said Adam Fracchia.
An expansion project for all three lines is on deck to start in 2010. But the bulk of the work is scheduled to happen between 2011 and 2015.
"We have a large amount of projects underway throughout the MARC system to expand the amount for parking," said Kay.
The extra parking is part of a capital improvement plan for the MARC trains. The MTA plans to add nearly 20,000 seats by 2015.
But until the new spots get here, it'll be a tight squeeze for everyone.
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a bill that would give Maryland $15.5 million to improve transit systems.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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