RTD moved a step closer on Wednesday to charging some transit users for parking at select park-n-Rides when a Senate committee overwhelmingly approved the agency’s long-sought pay-for-parking measure.
Senate Bill 88 would allow the Regional Transportation District to charge those who park at high-demand bus and light-rail lots – yet who live outside the RTD district – from the first day they leave a vehicle.
Most importantly, the bill allows RTD to acquire license plate registration and driver’s license information from state revenue and motor vehicle department data bases.
RTD will use license plate data to determine whether those parking at key park-n-Rides are residents of the eight-county RTD district or not, said RTD General Manager Cal Marsella, in testimony to the Senate’s business, labor and technology committee.
The pay-for-parking plan would most likely be installed at RTD’s busiest lots, including Table Mesa, Wagon Road, Mineral, Nine Mile and Stapleton.
RTD’s aim is to make parking free for the first 24 hours for residents of the transit district and charge them $2 a day for each day after the first 24 hours.
Users of RTD lots who live outside the transit district would be charged $4 a day from day one, Marsella said.
Many of those who leave vehicles for multiple days are users of RTD’s skyRide bus service to Denver International Airport. The parking charge – whether $2 or $4 a day – would still be less than other airport parking, backers of the plan say.
In Wednesday’s hearing, Sen. Tom Wiens, a Castle Rock Republican, offered an amendment that would eliminate the parking price differential between in-district and out-of-district residents. The amendment was soundly defeated.
Castle Rock residents elected to stay outside the RTD tax district.
Marsella said establishing the price differential for in-district and out-of-district residents is an issue of “equity.”
Transit users who live outside the RTD district and who don’t pay the 1 percent RTD sales and use tax should pay for parking from day one, he said.
Similarly it is fair for residents of the transit district, who pay the sales and use tax, to get the first 24 hours of parking free, and then pay a nominal daily charge for each day after that, Marsella said.
A parking plan that charges all users something if they leave vehicles for more than a day will discourage some motorists from leaving cars in RTD lots for days, weeks and even months at a time, and that will open up more spaces for daily users, he added.
The RTD parking bill was passed 6-1 by business and labor committee members and lawmakers sent the measure on to the Appropriations committee.
