Parking problems in downtown Millbrae are ever worsening.
They only promise to become worse upon the opening of BART
service. Both short-term and long-term solutions are
needed. No worthwhile idea should be overlooked.
Millbrae has some 1,446 parking spaces in the downtown area.
These are substantially too few. Merchants and business
owners, employees of downtown businesses, and residents who
shop and dine downtown all complain about the ever-worsening
situation. It also negatively affects the attractiveness of
Millbrae to new businesses.
BART has built 3,000 new parking spaces, but projects 13,000
riders on opening, and as may as 64,000 riders per day in 2010.
I believe we need to look at both short and long-term
mitigation of these problems.
In the short term, we should look at alternative means of
transportation, especially east and west, between Skyline
Drive at the top of the hill and El Camino. These may be
shuttle vehicles, the new "neighborhood electric vehicles"
or other forms of transit.
We also need to optimize the usage of available space. This
can be done inexpensively without shifting the burdens from
one sub-group of residents to another.
The long-term solution undoubtedly will be one or more
multi-level parking structures. We should consider
public-private partnerships and other approaches.
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