Out of curiosity
@choco choco , what would be your plan to park an additional 8,000 cars and handle a few hundred shuttle buses per day?
Ok, to get to this is gonna require a long post, but I wanna preface it by saying Anaheim doesn't have a problem with the parking structure or Disney's building of it. They have a problem with the Sky Bridge, and its lack of access to it. So us arguing about a parking structure is basically no way gonna solve the last remaining core issue to this project.
I also have to say that my main contention (which was posted many months ago on this exact thread) is that Disney is stubborn in their design for this sky bridge. The fault is Disney's, for adhering to their already really dubious design for this (the core of which is that their security checkpoint is poorly located) and refusing to change some things around. Disney have the money and the space, and the idea that a company that has over two hundred acres to play with and at least three different locations on it to place their various mall cops is actively picking on people with 1/20th the land area is embarrassing for the large company. I hate politicians even more than anybody on this thread does, but good on them for showing some backbone for once against a corporation they have already handed out decades worth of tax breaks to.
Ok...
Out of curiosity
@choco choco , what would be your plan to park an additional 8,000 cars and handle a few hundred shuttle buses per day?
The first way to address this is to debunk the idea that this parking structure is being built with any consideration towards traffic, from either the city or the theme park.
Basically, the best way to alleviate traffic is
to not build the parking structure. This is Urban Planning Rule 101, which lazyboy97o already alluded to. It's called
The Law of Induced Demand, and its been proven over and over again in transportation engineering. If Disney or Anaheim really cared about about traffic, they wouldn't build a structure at all. They would use the dearth of parking to force people to find other ways come: a system of shuttle buses from around the Southland for instance, similar to the Flyaway bus to LAX or the Hollywood Bowl shuttles--both programs of which are widely popular.
So the fact that they are building this large lot means both Disney and Anaheim don't give two snits about traffic. In fact, both are complicit in increasing it. This is the underlying reality everybody needs to accept right now, because decades of Urban Planning evidence is gonna bear it out:
this parking structure is only going to make traffic worse. There will now be two backed up exits off of the 5, instead of the one we have now (in fact, I'm surprised Cal Trans hasn't gotten involved in this project). Harbor and surrounding areas is gonna get worse. Katella is gonna get worse, and the Ball Road areas around Mickey and Friends are gonna remain just as bad. Worse traffic is just gonna be the new reality around the resort area, and it absolutely will be worse than if there had never been a structure built there at all.
But, like I said, everybody is complicit with increased traffic being a base given, and now all we've got is to do the best with that given. Which means, basically, what are some small actions that can be done to help lessen the traffic that is inevitably coming? I've actually already written about how I would fix the parking system elsewhere, but the most basic action was to get rid of the main chokepoint: the tollbooths. There's absolutely no reason I can think of to keep them. Why wouldn't somebody straight enter parking and be directly lead to a parking spot? And at the spot is an attendant holding a tablet with Square or a moneybox ready to take your money directly after you've turned off the engine? When this transaction is done, the attendant moves on to the next available spot. This gets cars off the road quicker, and lessens emissions because there aren't rows of cars idling about.
For late arriving AP's who find a spot after circling around, there are complimentary methods to the roving attendent. Parking meters for each spot. Pay kiosks where you would have to buy a ticket to put on a dashboard. There's phone payment, where each spot is numbered and you pay for the spot by entering in your spot number and paying by mobile. I just don't understand the adherence to 50's style tollbooths. You also know what happens if tollbooths, and numerous lanes associated with them, are eliminated? More parking spaces! A parking structure wouldn't have to waste precious square footage (the bottom floor of Mickey and Friends, for instance, is wasted on tollbooths) and have more parking space.
I would also consider changing pricing around, where there are discounts for carpooling. The most expensive parking price is for the single driver. This would instantly eliminate many of the solo cars off the road, and free up their slots for more efficient vehicles.
There also should be talk of utilizing other parking lots in the area, some of them farther away, and people being shuttled in. The farther the lot, the cheaper the parking price, leading a large number of cars away from the main Resort area and spreading them out broadly over a wide area. Angel Stadium's lot is underused. So is the Pond's parking lot. There's loads of blank space in the Platinum Triangle.
And there should have been consideration, when planning the Eastern Gateway, of having direct on and off ramps off the 5 straight into the structure, so that cars won't have to make a difficult right turn (if coming from the North) and then waiting at another intersection. If coming from the south, there's a whopping four intersections between you and entering this new lot. That this wasn't discussed is the biggest sign to me that traffic mitigation is not a factor in this project. Neither Disney or Anaheim care.
