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.
