0 Boston Employs Parking Sensors to Vary Seaport Meter Limits

Sensors added to Seaport parking meters

Credit: The Boston Herald

The growth of the Seaport area has put a tremendous strain on parking spaces and the City of Boston is trying to accommodate.  Gone are dirt lots from Summer Street to Congress Street to the Seaport Boulevard, and now the residents and visitors are battling over metered spots.

According to a Boston Herald report, “new sensors embedded in on-street metered parking spaces in Boston’s Seaport District have yielded the first changes aimed at better addressing traffic demand.” Specifically, “based on data gleaned from the new smart parking system, the city yesterday changed 81 metered spaces from the 350 Summer St. block to the 425 Summer St. block in South Boston from two-hour to four-hour maximum parking limits. Another 63 metered spaces on the 250 Summer St. and 300 Congress St. blocks were changed from maximum four-hour to maximum two-hour spaces.”

Follow the link to read the Boston Herald article.

0 1,700-car Garage Plotted for South Boston Waterfront

The growth of the Seaport District has created a number of challenges and one of the prominent ones is parking.  Massport is looking to offer some relief to this by building a 1,700 car garage atop the Pike.

Credit: WaterSideBoston.com

The Boston Globe offers details on the proposed parking additions, noting it “would be built over a strengthened section of the turnpike tunnel near the World Trade Center complex. Although the site is about a third of a mile from the Seaport Square area, where visitors to Fan Pier and attractions like the Institute of Contemporary Art vie for parking with workers from the adjacent financial district, Massport said the parking garage would be vital for apartments and a planned hotel near the convention center.

For more information on the proposed South Boston Waterfront Garage, jump over to the Boston Globe’s website

 

0 Seaport Parking Transforms with Neighborhood

A frequent question I get is, where can I park?  Well that’s simple, but usually involves a price higher than somebody wants to pay.  On a tour of 320 Congress Street this week, we referred to the ever-disappearing mud lot parking spaces of the Seaport; that number has reduced by 1,200 spaces over the last two years while the garages have only given back 990 spaces.  What gives? Well, in short, the mud lots over the last twenty years were the cheap alternative for the high-priced Financial District garages.  Now that the Seaport is a growing Class A office market commuters should reply on public transportation, after all, South Station is only a short walk.

The Boston Globe has posted an infographic that provides a visible breakdown of the changes to parking spaces in the Seaport:

Boston Seaport parking map

Credit: The Boston Globe