PARKING: West Seattle Junction RPZ expands

Thanks to Steve for the tip about those covered-up signs near California and Andover. SDOT confirms they’re signs for an expansion of what started as the West Seattle Junction Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ):

These signs are for a single-block expansion of Restricted Parking Zone 35 on SW Andover Street between 44th Ave SW and California Ave SW. We followed our standard practice for single-block expansions as described on our website here.

Here’s what the signs will look like when uncovered:

Here’s the current RPZ map; here’s what this zone covered when launched almost five years ago. This is one of two RPZs in West Seattle; the other is in Fauntleroy,

NW January 19, 2024 (7:44 pm)

Anyone else feeling the squeeze along Charlestown st just east and west of California Ave sw? I can’t imagine with so little space for traffic and the size of cars and trucks now a days why a person would park there.

JTinWS January 19, 2024 (11:27 pm)

It does seem some more folks are parking along the hilly bit of Charlestown between CA and 41st lately. Oh well, that’s traffic calming I guess. (Except for whatever psycho seems to have run over the little yellow sign in the middle of the 42nd/Charlestown roundabout in the last week or so!)The funny thing to me is people who will play chicken, crossing over the median of the road toward oncoming cars in order to give 3-4 feet of clearance to parked cars on the shoulder. Let’s all learn where the passenger sides of our cars are!
- Odd son January 19, 2024 (11:51 pm)
  
  That roundabout gets run over often. I’m always filing a find it fix it request lol. I agree about people who don’t know how wide their vehicle is (insert scowl emoji).

Plf January 19, 2024 (8:25 pm)

All this does is shift the long term commuter parking to 44 th ave between. Andover and Charleston. Streets are public so guess it’s ok, but not sure what makes that tiny street can make it primarily residential

Montana Griz January 19, 2024 (8:26 pm)

All the more reason for new construction of multi-dwelling buildings to have 1:1 off-street parking. YES, we’d all like to have West Seattle be the new Amsterdam with thousands of bicycles and dozens of vehicles, but I imagine we can all agree we’d like a lot of fantasies to come true.Restricted Parking Zones are fine for developments and new infrastructure, in most cases. In West Seattle? Nope.

Bus January 20, 2024 (7:42 am)

All the more reason to make the street parking permits a lot more expensive so that single-family home dwellers clean out their garages and actually use them instead of feeling entitled to taxpayer-subsidized car storage on public streets. I guess homeowners taking responsibility for choosing housing that meets their parking needs instead of blaming everyone else when they can’t use “their” parking in front of their house is my personal fantasy. In West Seattle? Nope.
- Cori R January 21, 2024 (2:25 pm)
  
  The issue is not so much the SFR but the Apts that add large numbers of residents and NO parking.

Oracle January 19, 2024 (9:00 pm)

Ah yes…..bit by bit, West Seattle is becoming another Lower Queen Anne. I often think about the movie “Never Ending Story”……The Nothing is spreading.

Chemist January 19, 2024 (10:44 pm)

Kind of interesting that it’s expanding so far North of the RPZ’s stated source of draw, the Rapid Ride bus route. Andover’s 4 blocks North of Alaska after all. The link WSB provided says that one block expansions just use an online petition process and the block needs to meet a 75% utilization threshold and 60% of residential households sign onto the petition. Interestingly, the 35%+ non-resident vehicles parking there isn’t a part of the expansion process vs the creation process.

sgs January 20, 2024 (12:57 am)

Isn’t there an RPZ on 46th Ave SW just south of Alaska? I’m not seeing it on the map that was linked.

ttt January 20, 2024 (7:16 am)

yes, there is on 46th between alaska and edmunds.
- Chemist January 20, 2024 (9:59 am)
  
  It looks like that block of 46th was an earlier expansion compared to what was launched back in 2019.

Raincity January 20, 2024 (8:31 am)

There used to be a bus route that ran north on 49th in the morning coming up from beach drive at Loman beach. It ran north in the morning and would gather up people trying to get a bus downtown. Probably ten years ago they switched it to only run south in the morning which didn’t get people up to the junction. They tried that “call to get a ride” option to the junction but the zone it was in was very small. If the pressure on parking around the junction is because people want to commute by bus making an effort to solve that problem is more productive than making in more difficult.

Mellow Kitty January 20, 2024 (11:49 am)

No one is losing parking. They put a two hour limit there unless you’re a resident with a parking permit. There’s plenty of parking in the pay lots for shopping. Before you ask why you should have to use the paid lots for shopping, ask yourself why people who live in or near The Junction have to parks blocks away from where they live so you can shop for an hour or two.

anonyme January 20, 2024 (12:30 pm)

All parking should be paid parking. If the people who have driveways and garages actually used them for their intended purpose, parking wouldn’t be such an issue. That, and the continued delusion that every human must be attached to at least one vehicle, and at least one of those vehicles should be as huge as possible.

Anti-rpz January 20, 2024 (1:51 pm)

Anonyme is correct.
RPZs make neighborhoods exclusionary, inequitable, sterile, less friendly and do not address the underlying issues. RPZs perpetuate homeowners’ assumptions of “their personal parking spot in front of their house” on the city’s street.

All street parking should be paid parking with on-demand pricing to maintain minimal availability.
Chemist January 21, 2024 (12:02 am)

Same for apartment dwellers that decide not to pay for their building’s off-street parking and instead park on the street, right?
- Bus January 21, 2024 (7:10 am)
  
  The cost of off-street parking is typically wrapped into the price of the renal with apartments, so ignoring building parking in favor of the street is not really a thing.
Frog January 21, 2024 (7:18 am)

Paid parking would be a great idea in principle, and plenty of home owners would be all for it. Make the entire Alki neighborhood paid parking please please please. Problem is, 1) paid parking is hard to enforce against drivers from out of town or out of state; and 2) progressive government lacks the will now days to enforce any law even when it’s possible. How is paid parking any different? It just becomes another honesty tax, routinely ignored by anyone who feels like it. Like car registration.

More Please January 20, 2024 (12:31 pm)

I’d like to see RPZ expand south of the Alaska Junction.

Chemist January 20, 2024 (2:48 pm)

The threshold is pretty high to create a new RPZ, requiring 10 contiguous block faces and SDOT doing studies showing a lot of non-resident parking. If you want a new RPZ it seems like it’s a multi-year process with SDOT to get it created.

Alki Eye January 20, 2024 (5:09 pm)

If all the street parking here was just $1-$2 for up to each day of parking, people would stop storing cars on street and make better use of other options.

Al King January 21, 2024 (7:00 am)

I recognize a couple of the cars that park by the junction regularly. They belong to Alki residents-an are that has NO transit service. They’re taking the bus into work. If you’re going to force them-and others like them to park further and further away they may just give up and drive to work. Do you think that’s better?

Sorry, comment time is over.