Someone get the word out to all those eager Metro Expo Line riders that the L.A. Times, Los Angeles Magazine and KTLA5 were so concerned about! Get the word out to Pacific Palisades! Lo and behold, it turns out that there is actually plenty of car parking available along the newly-opened Metro Expo Line phase 2.
There are lots of people riding the new train. Sometimes the train cars get crowded. It turns out that, as in the past, apparently Expo is not that different from the rest of Metro's transit network where more than 80 percent of riders arrive by walking. As SBLA opined earlier, it does appear that:
Metro has done a good job of balancing its investments in access to the Expo Line. By investing in parking, bus service, bike and walk facilities, Metro is giving Angelenos plenty of great choices.
The questions now may be: Why are there so many empty spaces? Why did Metro build so much parking (roughly 5-10 million dollars worth)?
Maybe people are just taking advantage of very good walk, bike, bike-share, and bus connections.
Maybe people believed the media "not enough parking" hype and decided not to even try to sign up for parking permits.
Maybe Metro might need to be nimble and manage these spaces more proactively. Perhaps this would include more promotion, and, possibly (I hate to say this) charging less. This is the first phase of Metro's new station parking policy. Though the policy changes look like a step in the right direction, there may be early hiccups to work out.
It is important to acknowledge that it is still very early. Expo 2 has been up and running for just under three weeks. It is too soon to be too critical of Metro for too many or too few parking spaces along the line. Over time, it is possible that there will be a parking shortage. For the moment, the line is a success, and people, some of them arriving by car, are eager to ride it.
If readers want to get a parking permit for Expo Line stations, or any other Metro stations, go to Metro's parking website. It looks like now is a good time to get in on plenty of spaces available along the Expo Line phase 2.
