I only give free rides to a select few, but be prepared, I do occasionally break the speed limit.
I look at this bill as basically freeing up developers from having to put in unprofitable parking if they don’t want to, based on some town’s dictate. While it aligns with our goals on here, I’m sure the Republicans (and likely many Democrats) were not thinking of it with the same motivation as us. I also can see the people in Cary complaining about not enough parking as soon as they see this news. LOL
the signs may need to be tweaked…early sundays arent the worst time to ride in raleigh and i expect the lane parking is a tiny bit of bike lane usage compared to the whole…keeps raleigh, raleigh imho.
DTR has a ton of surface parking lots that just seem to me to be a massive waste of developable land (for commercial, residential, and/or public space). This one is located on the adjacent block east of Moore Square. Seems to be city-owned.
What are people’s thoughts on DTR surface lots? My personal opinion is that surface parking lots do not really belong in downtown areas. I say that as someone who owns a car and commutes for work, so I am not completely ‘anti-car’.
The gravel one on the Edison block constantly makes me annoyed. I often use it as an example for underdeveloped land.
The ones near Hargett and Harrington also kind of annoy me because the raised foundation makes me think that it was something before. The ones near the Pope House/Lincoln Theater annoy me for similar reasons.
The story of many of Downtown Raleigh’s black owned businesses turning into surface parking lots is a sad one. I don’t love surface parking lots in downtown, but I also believe they’re more often genuine market outcomes to the transportation choices we’ve made than the city owned decks.
Ah yes - THOSE lots. I do understand that those lots exist bc the land owners know they can make some easy money while they hold the lot (without much infrastructure investment). At the same time, there are some other creative things you could do with land like that (like a semi-permanent food truck rodeo / food hall).
It just feels like the city should discourage core downtown land being used exclusively for parking. Perhaps they already do this and I’m just unaware. However, I would as far as to say it should be outright banned in the downtown core. There’s enough parking with the city, state, and privately owned decks when combined with the abundance of street parking in general. Those surface lots sit empty a majority of the time.
As Raleigh continues to grow, I would expect these lots to slowly disappear. In the present, they’re a massive eyesore and poor use of valuable space.
Is the downtown free 2 hour parking deal at certain garages still in effect? I am coming to Capital City next week and want to take advantage of it and if someone has the list of garages again please post it. Thanks in advance.
long live the free decks - except when I have a city board of adjustment meeting and have to park on the roof - then not so much - but otherwise - long live the free decks.
Some food for thought: I don’t think autonomous vehicles are going to solve traffic. That’s more of a math problem than a tech one. But I do think self-driving cars will eventually act like small-scale public transit. They could make it easier for people to get around without owning a car in cities like Raleigh.
We saw hints of this before COVID with things like Uber Pool, and now we’re seeing it again with services like Waymo. Cars spend most of their time sitting idle and need a lot of expensive parking structures in cities. Having a chauffeur isn’t realistic for most people, but tech automation helps bridge this gap.
Over time, this could lead to enough shared rides and density to make bigger autonomous vehicles work too, like a small 10 person bus. That still depends on cities being dense enough so people aren’t traveling long distances like Pittsboro to downtown, but it’s possible especially in areas that haven’t really somewhat embraced mass transit.
It’ll be interesting to see how autonomous taxis roll out in the next few years and how they might shift the way we think about getting around and parking for urban residents. Still would need things like rental vehicles for long distance trips.
When Elon introduced the Robotaxi, he focused on removing parking lots, primarily for long-term storage. The goal is for autonomous vehicles to always be on the road taking passengers to various destinations. I don’t think many people will drop their personal vehicles to rely on them. However, Elon wants to enable people to allow their personal vehicles to be used as autonomous taxis, instead of having them sitting in the garage/driveway.
I’d argue that Waymo is probably the likely candidate to lead the autonomous taxi execution across US Markets: Introducing our next city: Dallas
I honestly don’t see car owners wanting to autonomous ride share their personal vehicles when not in use. Once vehicles can generate revenue without a driver, the economics of personal mobility shift fundamentally as vehicles become income-producing assets, and transportation itself begins to behave more like a commoditized service.
