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Transportation center a victim of its success
A commuter backs out of a space on a recent morning at the Fairfield Transportation Center. Parking has grown scarce in the center's garage and adjacent parking lot. (Brad Zweerink/Daily Republic)
FAIRFIELD — It’s a typical morning at the Fairfield Transportation Center and the competition is on for that most prized of possessions — a parking space.
The center has 640 spaces, where people can leave their vehicles and catch van pools or the express buses that go to BART stations. But by 6:45 a.m. on a recent day, both the parking lot and three-story parking structure were full.
Just business as usual. City officials estimate the daily overflow at the center is 150 to 200 drivers.
The Fairfield Transportation Center is such a success that it fails to provide room for many mass transit enthusiasts. Those enthusiasts are looking to the city for a quick fix that city officials say they can’t yet offer.
Some commuters on this recent day, such as Ryan Bruns, parked in a nearby shopping center parking lot. As he knew, that move comes with the risk of being towed.
“Got to get to work,” Bruns said.
Others have gotten burned by defying the “customer parking only” signs. Jenny Mendez last year thought she was parking in a space for the vacant, former Smart & Final building. Instead, she had chosen one reserved for the adjacent business and she returned at the end of the day to find her vehicle had been towed. She paid $300 to get it back.
Now she gets dropped off at the Transportation Center. Otherwise, she’d have to go to the center long before her bus departs, just to get a parking space.
“I know there’s no way I would find a parking space now,” she said as she waited for the bus at 7:15 a.m.
Not unless she got lucky. About 10 cars lined up outside the parking structure at 7:30 a.m. on a recent day, the same time a van carrying people who work the night shift at United Airlines arrived. That freed up a few spaces.
Several Transportation Center users speak of the events of Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. That’s when a few dozen vehicles – the precise number varies with the teller – were towed from the front of the vacant Smart & Final store.
Teri Green isn’t taking a chance on parking in a lot for neighboring commercial stores, not any more. She did so Sept. 11, 2012. Her vehicle was towed and she paid $275 to get it back.
She’s taken to catching the BART express bus in Suisun City, though it adds time to her commute to Oakland. This allows her to use the Suisun City park-and-ride lot.
“There is parking in Suisun,” Green said. “I don’t think many people know that yet.”
She might have to return to driving to work, Green said. Like many other commuters, she wants Fairfield to take action and solve the Fairfield Transportation Center parking problems.
“I’m not talking about the long-term solution,” Green said. “I’m talking about the immediate problem.”
Fairfield has a long-term solution in mind. It wants to add 1,000 spaces to the Transportation Center by building another parking structure. But the $16 million first phase could be years away.
The city also has a midterm solution. The City Council in July 2011 approved spending $1 million to buy 1.84 acres along Oliver Road to become a 180-space park-and-ride lot. The idea is that van poolers could use the lot, freeing space at the Transportation Center about a third-of-a-mile away for bus riders.
In July 2011, Fairfield officials said the Oliver Road lot could open in fall 2012. That didn’t happen.
Pavement on part of the Oliver Road property is in worse condition than originally thought and will have to be torn out and replaced, City Assistant Public Works Director for Transportation Wayne Lewis said. Plus, the city must meet its own codes for landscaping, just as a business would, he said.
At this point, he’s hoping the Oliver Road lot can open late this year or early next year.
He’s trying to work with businesses near to the Transportation Center to see if he can reach an agreement for some number of commuters to park in their lots, Lewis said. But businesses are concerned about possible liability and whether they’ll have the spaces for customers when needed, he said.
The city has looked at having the BART express buses stop at the Red Top Road park-and-ride lot, Lewis said. But that adds time to the trip and that park-and-ride lot is almost full, he said.
Like Green, he noted the Suisun City park-and-ride lot has extra spaces and that the Route 90 bus to the El Cerrito Del Norte BART station stops there.
The Fairfield Transportation Center has become the success that city officials hoped for when it opened in 2000, replacing a smaller park-and-ride lot. Now the city’s problem is dealing with that success.
“We want to encourage people to use van pools and ride the bus,” Lewis said. “I’m taking the problem very seriously. I don’t have an immediate solution.”
Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929 or beberling@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beberlingdr.
Barry Eberling
Discussion | 9 comments
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LilMarch 09, 2013 - 10:53 pm
Just to nitpick, the Bart bus only does SOME stops at the Suisun park and ride. For example, the last bus at night does NOT go to Suisun. So if a person has to work a little late or there is a problem on Bart, you're stuck at the center with no way of getting to your car in Suisun. As for surrounding businesses, Target's lot has that extra area off to the side that is never used, even during Christmas shopping. It was used for parking when the garage was being built. I understand the liability concern but surely something can be done. What about the lot where the Christmas trees are sold on Automall Drive? That's an empty space that might be usable. Makes more sense than the Oliver Road location that is almost a mile away and requires crossing very heavy traffic.
Reply |The MisterMarch 10, 2013 - 9:48 am
Doesn't look like those high-paided and vaunted planners planned so well, did they? The Suisun City Council just voted to take another grant (with strings attached) to pay for another planner to make another plan to sit on the shelves gathering dust... like Mayor Sanchez said the previous plans are doing. So, did the planners make a mistake with the transportation center? Do we get our money back? The tax-payers are on the hook to pay the planners... and to pay for their mistakes. Is that fair?
Reply |Mr. PracticalMarch 10, 2013 - 10:06 am
There isn't a bottomless pit of money available for transportation projects. Maybe they did the best they could with with funding was available at the time.
Reply |LilMarch 10, 2013 - 11:34 am
I don't see how Suisun City hiring a planner has anything to do with this. I don't believe the City of Fairfield made a mistake in planning this center. I agree with the paper's statement that it is a victim of its own success. It's convenient and safe and was a great place to park your car and catch your carpool, vanpool, the bus, casual carpool, etc. I think the only mistake made was in underestimating how many people would use it. The center replaces a parking lot that probably didn't hold more than 50 cars (that lot was behind some bushes and scary as heck at night). During the last decade, tons of people moved to Fairfield who commute into the Bay Area. Not sure that there was a way to plan for that kind of unexpected growth.
Reply |I love FTCMarch 10, 2013 - 7:10 pm
Sure you have to get there early for the parking but it's still worth the hassle. I hope the Mayor and councilmembers see what a success FTC has become, Fairfield needs to find a way to expand the FTC hub.
Reply |ffvetMarch 10, 2013 - 8:33 pm
@LIL, So you are telling me that whoever planned this didn't understand the scope of what was being built? Did the planner actually Think, hey we are building a transportation center that will link SACRAMENTO commuter with BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT and expect 641 parking lots to suffice? Bad planning, please stop with the excuses it was bad planning.
Reply |eMarch 13, 2013 - 7:37 pm
Easy solution: Charge for parking.
Reply |GarretApril 30, 2013 - 10:55 am
I would gladly pay for parking, monthly, daily, etc. However, so are the 800 or so carpool and bus riders. If the fees are too high, then we would run into a problem that plagues all government run fee programs, the ones that are of lower incomes will claim fees are too high, and demand a free or reduced lunch. If set too low and the problem will remain with too many people filling up the space - look at Bart's parking issues at El Cerrito Del Norte and Plaza. Sure they charge $1 for parking, but try to get a parking space in there after 8am. If a larger structure would really cost $16M to build, can that fee really be covered by charging for parking in the garage? $50 a month, $2 dollars a day for say 1000 spaces, would only net $600K. The best solution right now is the solution that has somewhat been implemented. Negotiate with the businesses surrounding the area and see if they are able to allocate a few spaces. Perhaps even using that still vacant space that Ramirez Tow now patrols for possible revenue.
Reply |GarretApril 30, 2013 - 10:31 am
This is the same line of excuses I got from emailing the city about this back in 2010 when the Fairfield Carpool group (please add us on Facebook) had foreseen this coming. It started with the 99 cent store sending out warning, neigh, threatening letters and who would have thought that the actual action would occur by the vacant building managers at the old smart and final. The event was known to many carpoolers and bus riders that got towed and paid the premium to reclaim their cars from Ramirez Tow as the Valentine's Day Massacre. It is a little harsh, I understand but so is the knee jerk reaction to tow cars. A better, possibly economical solution would have been to issue citations by the city to all the cars. Even if the fines were $25, I know many of my carpool brethren would have took that as a huge lesson learned and would have accomplished the same result of not parking in their parking spaces, that to this day still remain vacant. Liability? Really? I think we are all aware that when we park our cars in these spaces, we are pretty much on our own. If not, then the signs that state just that would quickly remind us that the owners of the lot is not responsible for damage, theft, etc. - like it is in ANY American parking lot. So as the city run out of excuses and nonsense, we are left with a now, 3 year old problem, due to the city's failure to be more proactive and quite frankly, care about the many of the residence of Fairfield and Solano County that do not have the benefit of earning a decent income in town. I am going continue my protest with my wallet and my grand equalizers with the ones in the city who live in their ivory towers; my rights of suffrage. I urge others to do the same. I vow to never darken the insides of stores, nonetheless give them my hard earned cash that refuses to assist the many that are also their customers that chose to commute outside of Fairfield to earn for their families. The 99 cent store is on the top of my list, then whatever decides to lease that Smart and final Building - I don't care if it is the best value, best wares, best items (which is doubtful) I will never step foot in that place because of what they have done. Home Depot and Target have made allowances, which is commendable, but Food 4 Less, Walgreens, and Comcast over at that other lot makes my list as well. I would like to say that I hope things get better, but with the dysfunctional and ineffective "solutions" our city has done thus far; it would be hard to stay optimistic.
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