Fast-Track the Parking

On one level, the packed parking lot at the North Hollywood subway station is good news. It’s a visible sign that subway ridership is exceeding expectations. Skeptics said it would never happen, but Angelenos are actually getting out of their cars and using public transportation.

Or at least they’re trying to. With the lots at both the North Hollywood and Universal City stations 90% to completely full during peak hours, some commuters remain stuck in their cars, circling the stations in search of a parking space. If this continues day after maddening day, they could lose patience and abandon the effort--and the subway--unless the Metropolitan Transportation Authority comes up with more places to park, and soon.

Transit authorities, including MTA board member and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, counter that limiting parking will have a positive effect: It will encourage commuters to find alternative ways to get to the stations.

That may be the ideal solution, but a quick, efficient feeder system to the North Hollywood and Universal City stations is hardly in place. Yes, some progress has been made, including new, rapid buses now running along Ventura Boulevard. But until either a high-speed busway or light rail ties the north and West San Fernando Valley to the east, anyone who has a car is going to use it either to get to the station or, if there’s no parking available there, to go over Cahuenga Pass rather than under it.

It is frustrating enough that the MTA didn’t have adequate parking in place before the stations opened in late June. It’s not like the subway sneaked up on anybody; construction--and delays--took years. The MTA’s plan to build a multistory parking facility on what is now the North Hollywood station’s 847-space parking lot is on hold until plans are in place for other parcels of land it owns in the area, which in turn are tied to the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency’s plans for North Hollywood. And everyone by now knows how slowly the CRA moves.

But there’s no use complaining about what might have been. What’s needed now is immediate relief. Adding bike racks and re-striping the lots to accommodate more cars is a start. So is turning one of several nearby empty parcels owned by the MTA or the CRA into at least a temporary parking area. After all, once construction--eventually--gets underway on the multistory parking garage, commuters will have to have some place to park in the interim. Or has anyone thought ahead about that?