Here is a photo of the lovely new Transit Village under construction at the MacArthur BART station:
(Yes that is a giant parking garage, behind a giant freeway interchange.)
August 13, 2013 by Drunk Engineer
Here is a photo of the lovely new Transit Village under construction at the MacArthur BART station:
(Yes that is a giant parking garage, behind a giant freeway interchange.)
Posted in transit | Tagged BART, TOD | 7 Comments
[…] High-Speed Rail. Human Transit wonders if texting and driving is pushing people toward transit. And Systemic Failure says a new “transit village” planned for a BART station is anything […]
This project is a poster child for putting a TOD mask on prostration before the altar of the parking god. The link below leads to a site that’s got announcements about parking and access changes (see top three PDF’s*). But where are the progress reports ?
http://macarthurtransit.com/index.php
* MTV Bulletins for Oct. 2011 (#3), Mar. 2012 (#4), and July 2013 (#5)
I agree that parking garages are hugely over expensive, but don’t you think it’s also worth at least mentioning that the garage is just the first part of a much bigger mixed use TOD and BART plaza redevelopment project which includes significant bike and pedestrian elements? At the very least, the parking structure and forthcoming developments are a much better use of space than the old surface lot.
I disagree that it is a better use of the space. The $51 million spent on the parking garage is money that could have been spent on more important things. As for the TOD, there are a lot of empty and underutilized lots near the station. Why not just develop those first?
Looks exactly like the Sierra Madre Villa Station on the Metro Gold Line in Pasadena. A few days ago I went to this recent TOD development, perhaps a bit too “shopping mallish”, but pleasant enough:
http://www.archdaily.com/76557/tama-plaza-station-laguardalow-architects/
PR piece on upcoming groundbreaking :
Bridge Housing starts first housing project at MacArthur BART (San Francisco Business Times, 13 Sept. 2013)
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/09/bridge-housing-macarthur-bart-apartments.html
Mixed bag article at SFGate.com with the leading chunk on Bridge Housing:
Bridge Housing breaks ground on 90 Oakland units
(SFGate.com, 14 Nov. 2013)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Bridge-Housing-breaks-ground-on-90-Oakland-units-4983999.php
NB – The article refers to a Friday groundbreaking which may have been the 15th of Nov.