Public Transit and Parking Choices

It sounds like a boring blog, but i'll try to sweeten it. And another picture with the Yarra river should make it "flow" (see below)... Some funny facts first. When we lived in Manhattan, buying a car was not a choice because parking fees could equal the price of another rental apartment. Rent was expensive enough to chop up any fantasy about buying anything other than food, clothes and yearly plane tickets to Europe. Public transit was divine! Buses, subways, trains and cabs left no destination out of reach on a radius of a few hundred miles around the city (add horse-drawn carriages, too! At least around Central Park). Yes, there was no submarine to step into once you arrived by train or bus in Montauk, but why not take a plane if you really wanted to go farther? Well, all that was left behind in 2006, when we landed in LA. Public transit? Let me put it this way: in the 3 years we spent there, I have never met a person who used one of the 6 subway lines serving the county, buses were infrequent and slow, and until about 2008 one could not hail a cab by the curb, they had to call to reserve it or walk to a taxi station (called taxi rank in Oz). Here I am in Melbourne, year after year ranking among the top 10 most livable cities on this planet. Public transit scores high and it is an attractive choice. It consists in trains, buses, trams and cabs. Plenty of trains criss-cross the city and its suburbs, in and out, but never around. So tempting to commute by train, but should I drive the logical short way or should I take the train from home in my South-Eastern suburb to the center of the city, run around the City Loop (I am not kidding!), and then finally arrive at work in the North-Eastern suburb? That is three trains and twice the time it takes to drive. So I drive again… And here comes parking into discussion. There are plenty of parking places around, because I work in a hospital located in a sprawling suburb. The only problem is that parking is a business here (more expensive then in crammed Santa Monica), and I can park at work for $10 to $30/day, I can park on the street for $4/day if I get there before 7:30AM (it’s too cheap not to be in high demand), or I can park gratis on most streets BUT for maximum 2 hours. Since I would have to walk at least 15 min to these parking spots, the 2-hour restriction puts them entirely out of reach and keeps the rich neighbourhood car-free. My solution? I found the tiny, hidden street where there is no 2-hour restriction and will not reveal the location not even under torture! I walk 1 km from there to work, but it’s a pleasant stroll during which I can think about what I will blog that day. What do others do? Melbournians started a website that connects people like me with little entrepreneurs who live in areas of high-parking demand and are willing to “lease” their driveway for daily parking. How do you like that?