Train commuters who park at the Kent Station garage will be able to get permits starting in the fall of 2016.
The Sound Transit Board on Sept. 24 approved a new program to offer reserved parking permits at its busiest facilities to frequent transit riders. The goal of the program is to make limited parking resources more efficient while guaranteeing parking availability to many regular riders and to those who frequently carpool to the park-and-ride lots, according to a Sound Transit media release.
The program will be in place for carpoolers at 10 of Sound Transit’s busiest facilities, including Kent, by fall of 2016.
“We have made a sizable regional investment in park and rides over the past twenty years, but all too often people arrive only to find them full,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and King County Executive Dow Constantine. “This program will better manage that investment to improve access to trains and buses, especially for frequent commuters.”
Detailed information about the program is available at soundtransit.org/permitparking.
Sound Transit tested permits during a 2014 pilot project and collected further input this summer on the next steps toward making the program permanent.
The permits could be available to those who carpool to transit lots as early as fall of 2016 and later be available to solo drivers by late 2016 or early 2017.
The board approved a permit fee of $5 a month for carpools of at least two transit riders. The fee for solo drivers will be set later on.
Here’s how the permit system will work:
• Transit customers must have and use a valid ORCA card to apply for a permit.
• Permit parking areas would be reserved for permit holders through morning rush hour Monday through Friday.
• On weekends and after morning rush hour on weekdays, transit riders would be able to park in permit spaces without a permit.
• Renewal would require the permit holder’s ORCA records to show they rode transit at least three times per week during the previous permit term. Flexibility will be allowed for time away (such as vacation).
• Carpool permit holders must arrive with at least two transit riders in the permitted vehicle.
• At least 50 percent of parking spaces at each location would remain free and available for transit riders on a first-come, first-served basis.
Locations for the permit program will include:
Angle Lake Station (light rail, opening 2016)
Auburn Station
Federal Way Transit Center
Issaquah Transit Center
Kent Station
Mercer Island Park-and-Ride
Overlake Transit Center
Puyallup Station
Sumner Station
Tukwila International Boulevard Station (light rail)
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