AUSTIN | 500 West 2nd Street | 400 FEET - 28 FLOORS | COMPLETE

[Jdawgboy]

To be honest, and this is strictly my opinion coupled with my decade and a half experience going DT at least on a weekly basis, but I think there's more parking DT than can be filled up even during major events.

I'm able to go to my regular garage even during SXSW and still see that there are plenty of places on the top two levels. If by chance the top is filled, the half of the garage going below ground usually has spaces. In the rare cases when the garage is full, I go to my backup garage and have always been able to find parking there.

The issue I see is not all of the garages are being utilized. Some are strictly for residents or hotel guests and that's fine but there are other garages I see that for whatever reason don't open up for general parking. Other garages I know of more times than not don't fill to capacity which tells me it's not a lack of parking we are dealing with. It has more to do with what people are willing to pay for parking.

The garage I regularly go to is normally a flat 5 dollar fee. During big events it's sometimes 7 or 10 dollars. I don't mind paying up to 10 if there's major events or festivals going on but I think it becomes overkill when they start charging over that. I don't blame people for not wanting to pay 15-20 dollars for parking. It's something the city should look into because if parking across DT is reasonable within 10 dollars, that opens up the garages that are overcharging. Sure some people will pay 20 bucks, but most won't so those garages don't fill up.

The other problem is that people complaining there's lack of parking DT need a reality check. Your not going to find free parking often and there are only so many metered parking spots. Fact of life is your going to need to fork out on average 5 dollars and park in a garage. Saying there isn't enough parking or that they can't find parking when they pass by garages with plenty of parking available is just ridiculous.

As stated above these are my personal observations and are not based on statistics or patterns. It's just what I observe when I'm DT. I think the city needs to be careful when it comes to more massive parking garages and really start pushing for mass transit and ride sharing options. Especially when they are removing road capacity by changing one way streets with 3 lanes to 2 way streets with one lane each side. I have no problem with the change as it has enhanced the streetscape and opened up more two way options to distribute traffic. But they are not the best roads to have parking garage entrances or exits, especially when there's several garages along the road.

It's a shame to see a building like this one being almost half garage.

[drummer]

^ I agree with you. I've not lived in downtown and go to Austin every year or two to see family since I'm not living there. But like you, I always end up making it down there and always find a spot (not always the best one, but I can't complain). Just to be more thorough, my "sustainable" argument isn't so much on the current/future condition of parking and whether or not there are enough spaces. It's more of a best land-use argument. Is it the best way (economically/environmentally/etc) to continue to construct buildings for decades on end? Skyhouse (among others) is an example for me: Where they put their massive garage, another building or two could've been built. The difference with 500 W 2nd St., Colorado, Bowie, and others, is that, while a building on top of a garage isn't pretty, at least it doesn't take up another lot or two of developable land. The traffic issue is there for some with additional cars, of course, but that's not going to change any time soon, especially without a better system. None of my argument here is based on any study or fact, I'll admit that. However, it's just an opinion based on observation.

What's funny to me living in China regarding parking: they build cities to utilize every possible square meter they can (for better or worse, and parking is a secondary thought, often times, with the exception of massive malls with underground parking, etc.). My wife and I usually ride our bikes, but we do have a car that we'll use a few times a week for various things. When we have to make a bigger grocery run, for example, we'll just take the car. Parking is always an adventure because the lines don't really matter - the parking attendants will squeeze in 30% more cars than there are spots. However, you ALWAYS have to pay...and I always gripe to myself about it until I figure out that I'm paying the equivalent of $0.80 each time, haha. $5 seems expensive to me now.

[Tech House]

re: jdawgboy's post.

I live in Greg Casar's district, and I bet he'd be open to having a conversation about this. Maybe I'll offer to buy him lunch someday, and I'll bring a couple of you more-articulate folks with me.

[427MM]

Council Member Casar is surely one of our greatest locally elected officials. The fact that ANC came out so heavily for his opponent who ended up showing her less than favorable colors, coupled with his passion for helping others and desire to increase our housing stock, allows him to simply worry about voting on the merits rather than having to worry about that extremely vocal minority.

As for the parking conversation--you build your city for cars or you build it for people--you chose. There is a great book titled, "The High Cost of Free Parking". Here is the semi-brief write-up Amazon has for it:

"One of APA's most popular and influential books is finally in PAPE, with a new preface from the author on how thinking about parking has changed since this book was first published. In this no-holds-barred treatise, Shoup argues that free parking has contributed to auto dependence, rapid urban sprawl, extravagant energy use, and a host of other problems. Planners mandate free parking to alleviate congestion but end up distorting transportation choices, debasing urban design, damaging the economy, and degrading the environment. Ubiquitous free parking helps explain why our cities sprawl on a scale fit more for cars than for people, and why American motor vehicles now consume one-eighth of the world's total oil production. But it doesn't have to be this way. Shoup proposes new ways for cities to regulate parking - namely, charge fair market prices for curb parking, use the resulting revenue to pay for services in the neighborhoods that generate it, and remove zoning requirements for off-street parking. Such measures, according to the Yale-trained economist and UCLA planning professor, will make parking easier and driving less necessary. Join the swelling ranks of Shoupistas by picking up this book today. You'll never look at a parking spot the same way again."

[nixcity]

^Good conversation. Once we see these new office building complete (especially if the one at AMH takes off) we are going to see our north south roadways become a nightmare on the scale that may be unparalleled in this country. We could be talking about ~500 new cars per day. Mass transit anyone.......? That is the only way our next generation of office buildings will be able to reduce parking.

[KevinFromTexas]

People always think that having alternatives to driving, whatever the mode is, is some kind of attack on their cars or way of life. Or that it's some kind of threat that their cars might be taken away or some other outrageous claim. That isn't true, of course. The way I look at it is that it's something that would give them an option - a freedom - that they don't have now because they're chained to their car. Of course I don't think the way of encouraging people to take mass transit or other modes should be by punishing them monetarily or placing restrictions on using a car in any way as they have in some places. It should be more organic where they decide to ditch their car because they see the convenience of other options. And of course those options truly need to be convenient and efficient.

It also really is crazy how we've built our society around cars. Just watching tv every day, a lot of the commercials you see are directly related to cars, such as auto maker commercials, local dealerships, insurance, maintenance, oil companies, gas stations, traffic injury lawyers. And then there's all the businesses that benefit greatly from an auto-based society, such as fast food, which itself isn't good for people either. I don't have anything against cars. It's just that I like the freedom of choice of options. Something else I always cringe at is the thought that there are 11 million registered cars in Los Angeles County - the most of any county in the US. That is insane, and depressing.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

It also really is crazy how we've built our society around cars. Just watching tv every day, a lot of the commercials you see are directly related to cars, such as auto maker commercials, local dealerships, insurance, maintenance, oil companies, gas stations, traffic injury lawyers. And then there's all the businesses that benefit greatly from an auto-based society, such as fast food, which itself isn't good for people either. I don't have anything against cars. It's just that I like the freedom of choice of options. Something else I always cringe at is the thought that there are 11 million registered cars in Los Angeles County - the most of any county in the US. That is insane, and depressing.

It is funny - I was thinking about that yesterday. I was driving my car (I know, I know - but in fairness, my wife is pregnant and isn't up for riding her bike as much, haha) and noticed that one of our tires was low on air. I was thinking of where I could add some air and was missing Discount Tire and other options that are so frequently available in the U.S....then I was thinking of how sad it is how so much is dependent on cars in the U.S. and was glad to spend a few extra minutes finding a shop here.

[Tech House]

I just sent this message to councilman Casar:

Subject: Conversation about councilman Casar on local forum
Message: Greg, it was an honor to be able to vote for you and I'm excited about your political future in general because you're seemingly a man of integrity and progressive ideas, not just an opportunistic politician nor a rabid ideologue. I wanted to share a page from a local forum in which you've been spoken of in glowing terms: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...214014&page=10
The conversation, in a thread about the 500 W. Second Street development, got heavily into the issue of how much parking there is downtown. We on the forum all seem to be in agreement that there's an enormous excess of parking, especially in these multi-level parking bases of office buildings. See what you think of the discussion. I ("Tech House") mentioned you because I thought you'd be one who would understand the fact that building for more cars just encourages more driving and is the wrong direction for the city to develop.

Best regards, and let me know if there's ever anything I can do,
George
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We can all email our representatives on the council any time, and I hope many of us do. We already know that they're getting an earful from neighborhood and real estate interests, neither of which represents the sort of vision for Austin that I'd want our council to follow. If you've ever watched the "open mike" sessions where citizens can speak to the council about whatever is on their minds, then you've probably felt similar to how I felt about watching --- it's depressing, almost scary. From what I've seen, it seems to be one extremist after another, with a lot of repeat customers who harp on the same agenda every time. Most of them don't seem to have much of a "big picture" vision for Austin; rather, they rant about how the city should bend over backwards to accommodate every homeless person in the USA, or they want some unreasonable environmental concession or fluoride out of the water, and so on. I haven't watched any of this in more than 10 years so maybe it's better now. I hope so.

Anyway, the point is that our voices are needed and wanted. We care about more than just preserving neighborhoods, or just paving everything over with VMU, or just offering affordable housing to anyone who needs it. The views expressed on SSP-Austin are diverse but within each voice there's an understanding that we need balance and we need to address a multitude of issues from a systems perspective and not get bogged down in micro-managing every little thing that goes on in the city.

[urbancore]

^ Well put.....I really hope he runs for mayor

[ivanwolf]

That garage is huge. Should take quite a while to get down at 5pm. I hope Google is working on an autonomous car to help their employees drive safely down that garage ramp.

[nixcity]

With all of the office/parking buildings going up does anyone know how many total parking spaces (cars) for offices are being added to downtown? But don't worry, Capmetro will come up with a plan along with the inept city council, not the most confidence building team you can think of (ie. lets spend more taxpayer money on roads, it has worked so well in the past.....).

[drummer]

Let's bring back to the people-mover bank tubes that were supposed to take off in cities around the world but never did. That'll take care of it.

Anyway, thanks "George" aka Tech House for shooting him a note!

Any new updates/photos on this one?

[Tech House]

I have another "does anyone know" question --- in a building like this with so many levels of parking, and probably a lot of high-salaried employees working inside, wouldn't there be a valet service? Granted, they'd need to have quite a few valets at peak hours, but it would be a lot more orderly a process than if there were a big jam of people all trying to leave at once, getting nowhere at all. Also, I'd think that since the prospect of dealing with that parking garage would be so unappealing, a valet service would be demanded by employees, and it would be a nice little extra to offer as p[art of the overall employee benefits package.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by Tech House

I have another "does anyone know" question --- in a building like this with so many levels of parking, and probably a lot of high-salaried employees working inside, wouldn't there be a valet service? Granted, they'd need to have quite a few valets at peak hours, but it would be a lot more orderly a process than if there were a big jam of people all trying to leave at once, getting nowhere at all. Also, I'd think that since the prospect of dealing with that parking garage would be so unappealing, a valet service would be demanded by employees, and it would be a nice little extra to offer as p[art of the overall employee benefits package.

Instead of waiting in your car, in a line of cars, wouldn't you be waiting in line for the valet(s)?

[Flatiron]

After all this talk about cars and parking garages, I want to know whether there is plans to put a bus stop in Seaholm or near this building.

[H2O]

Originally Posted by Flatiron

After all this talk about cars and parking garages, I want to know whether there is plans to put a bus stop in Seaholm or near this building.

There is an 803 MetroRapid stop at Nueces and Cesar Chavez, but it has been closed during construction.

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Instead of waiting in your car, in a line of cars, wouldn't you be waiting in line for the valet(s)?

I do believe you have such a valid and obvious point that I'm going to wear a paper bag over my head for the remainder of the evening.

[Digatisdi]

Originally Posted by Tech House

I do believe you have such a valid and obvious point that I'm going to wear a paper bag over my head for the remainder of the evening.

Theoretically you could call the valet some time before you left so your car would be ready by the time you got downstairs

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by Digatisdi

Theoretically you could call the valet some time before you left so your car would be ready by the time you got downstairs

True, and if work hours were scattered so that there wasn't a mad crush at 8 and 5 then that would certainly help.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by Tech House

True, and if work hours were scattered so that there wasn't a mad crush at 8 and 5 then that would certainly help.

I think staggered work schedules has been kicked around before as a possible solution to traffic issues, but the culture of 9 to 5 is too imbedded in many people's mind especially when your out of state support is on that schedule. And I would think most customers are also in that mind set of business hours are 9 to five. In addition, department meetings would also have to be staggered including lunches, ect...which could affect productivity. It works in retail that has long store hours, but maybe not so much for banks, lawfirms, consulting, reality, designers, ect...