Parking Questions / Discussion

At Wellington you can use the machine to pay for your parking when you arrive, the ticket will allow to leave anytime that day.

And the same thing at Route 128/Westwood, you can do the same thing in the morning but make sure you get back to the Rte 128 garage before the 14 hour period expires

Robert Paniagua wrote:And the same thing at Route 128/Westwood, you can do the same thing in the morning but make sure you get back to the Rte 128 garage before the 14 hour period expires

Do they publicize this anywhere? Or did you figure it out by trial and error?

If you do end up staying longer than 14 hours, can you pay the difference at the machine?

A sign in an out-of-the-way staircase at Alewife says they'll offer a "monthly debit pass" starting next month. I assume they're actually trying to describe a stored-value card, so you won't have to pay the machine every day.

boblothrope wrote: A sign in an out-of-the-way staircase at Alewife says they'll offer a "monthly debit pass" starting next month. I assume they're actually trying to describe a stored-value card, so you won't have to pay the machine every day.

There are signs at Alewife announcing the rollout of the stored value parking card. They're selling them in the afternoon on October 2 and 3. There's a $5 fee for the card, plus a $35 minimum deposit. I don't know how you'll get one after that.

The fee will prevent a repeat of the huge waste of money that the T spends on CharlieCards that are used once (or never) and get thrown away. Of course it would be better for parkers if the stored value parking card *was* a CharlieCard.

If they cannot integrate the parking system with the Charlie Card then they should have went with the EZ Pass system. I hope this parking pass will eventually be good for other garages on the system at least.

sery2831 wrote:If they cannot integrate the parking system with the Charlie Card then they should have went with the EZ Pass system. I hope this parking pass will eventually be good for other garages on the system at least.

EZPass works at Route 128 (fee has gone up to $7 for under 14 hours!). But as our friend OCTR202 found it, it must be a MA-issued EZPass (former FastLane), or it won't work.

There has been talk about integrating EZPass at Anderson/Woburn. But for now, Anderson has the hand-$4-to-the-attendant-in-the-booth high-tech system.

Another interesting tidbit: At Mansfield, the public parking lot at the station is $4/day. But if you have a Mansfield resident sticker on your car, there are spots set aside that are only $2/day.

Yeah, I saw that about Mansfield, Mr. Diverging Route. I now will use that lot for CR uses more often that others since I wont have to dig out 4 singles out of my pocket, I can just use a credit card or my debit card. I also have a monthly parking pass plastic touch card for the Braintree Garage, which I renew at the end of the month. I also love that idea, it's FAR BETTER than having to dig out for cash, less visits to the ATM.

Sorry to change the subject. I asked about this in the Quincy Center reconstruction thread also:

I might be taking a trip to the Quincy/Braintree area in the next few months. With the Quincy Center parking garage closed, is the Quincy/Adams garage filled to capacity with the overflow? Can you still find a space there at 10AM on a weekday?

I remember a few years back the Q-A garage was sometimes full and I drove up to Quincy Center and was able to park there, but with that garage closed............maybe this wouldn't be a good time for a trip to this area.

Also: can you still pay with cash at Quincy-Adams? The MBTA website doesn't specify what methods of payment are accepted, unless I didn't look in the right place.

Actually Ian, believe it or not, but at 10AM, you still can find a parking space at Quincy Adams. Just go up to the 5th or 6th level of the garege and you should find plenty of parking paces. And yes, Quincy Adams still honors cash and even with the new automated parking conversion, itll still accept cash, although youll have to place it in the parking pay station machines inside the station lobby.

Thanks for the update, Rob. Surprised there are still spaces there, with the other garage shut down. I guess it's the bad economy; not as many people commuting to the city. Five to ten years ago Quincy-Adams would sometimes fill up completely by 10AM.

boblothrope wrote:There are signs at Alewife announcing the rollout of the stored value parking card. They're selling them in the afternoon on October 2 and 3. There's a $5 fee for the card, plus a $35 minimum deposit. I don't know how you'll get one after that.

They modified the signs on the machines at Alewife to say the stored value parking card is now free. I assume you get one from the attendant in the parking office, which is next to the vehicle exit gates. (They call it a "debit card" which is a really stupid name.)

Also, they're currently installing two more payment machines in the lobby, for a total of seven.

Just got an email from mbta that they are switching from ParkMobile to paybyphone Feb 1st.

No word if this will enable the ticket collectors to be a bit smarter, e.g not give you a ticket if you mistype your parking spot.

Alewife garage was clearly provisioned for two more levels of parking: the elevators go up two more levels beyond "5" (and all the buttons and arrows that would take you to "6" and "7" are there. There are the requisite "knock out" panels to tie into the shaft and the structural columns are capped up on Level 5. It all begs the question: why have they not been added?

Arlington wrote:Alewife garage was clearly provisioned for two more levels of parking: the elevators go up two more levels beyond "5" (and all the buttons and arrows that would take you to "6" and "7" are there. There are the requisite "knock out" panels to tie into the shaft and the structural columns are capped up on Level 5. It all begs the question: why have they not been added?

Does the Alewife garage fill up these days?

I think the limiting factor isn't the number of parking spaces. It's the hideous traffic getting out of the station and onto 2 West every afternoon, due to governmental inability to fix the fundamentally flawed modified-star intersection which was supposed to be an interim measure.

They haven't even made the best of what they have with simple, cheap fixes, like tweaking the traffic lights so cars don't always get stuck in the intersection. Or putting up a sign telling people to "zipper merge" -- all it takes is one timid driver to waste the whole green for the garage exit road (or worse, block the intersection). Or widening the 2 east -> 16 north ramp to an official two lanes, instead of the current pointless two lane -> one lane -> two lane squeeze. http://goo.gl/maps/a8Y7q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They're also having a heck of a time maintaining the current garage. The water damage repair project has been going for several years, and they still have a long way to go.

boblothrope wrote:

Arlington wrote:Alewife garage was clearly provisioned for two more levels of parking: the elevators go up two more levels beyond "5" (and all the buttons and arrows that would take you to "6" and "7" are there. There are the requisite "knock out" panels to tie into the shaft and the structural columns are capped up on Level 5. It all begs the question: why have they not been added?

Does the Alewife garage fill up these days?

I think the limiting factor isn't the number of parking spaces. It's the hideous traffic getting out of the station and onto 2 West every afternoon, due to governmental inability to fix the fundamentally flawed modified-star intersection which was supposed to be an interim measure.

They haven't even made the best of what they have with simple, cheap fixes, like tweaking the traffic lights so cars don't always get stuck in the intersection. Or putting up a sign telling people to "zipper merge" -- all it takes is one timid driver to waste the whole green for the garage exit road (or worse, block the intersection). Or widening the 2 east -> 16 north ramp to an official two lanes, instead of the current pointless two lane -> one lane -> two lane squeeze. http://goo.gl/maps/a8Y7q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They're also having a heck of a time maintaining the current garage. The water damage repair project has been going for several years, and they still have a long way to go.

There's enough space under the underpass and on the DOT row to put a T-only exit lane that passed under Rt 2 before turning left and rising up to meet it as an on-ramp. Even if it were HOV-2 only (to pacify Arlington NIMBYs) it would make a huge difference: all the Bus, shuttle, taxi, kiss-and-ride would get out of the silly intersection.