More BART parking coming to Walnut Creek, Lafayette stations

QBART has torn up one of the parking lots in Walnut Creek.

One of the lots in Lafayette is still not functional. What is BART doing? Couldn’t they wait until the one in Lafayette was functional before they created a nonfunctional one in Walnut Creek? — Bob Mirada

AThere’s a lot going on at both stations. In Walnut Creek, construction of a new parking garage is underway on what used to be the south permit lot. Folks now park on the lower levels of the existing garage.

Says Chris the BART Man: “Riders who use daily parking can use the upper levels of the existing garage through selfparking and our attendant-assisted parking program. This allows us to maximize the available space in the existing garage so we never see a decline in the total number of parking spots available during construction.”

Once the new garage is complete, there will be two garages at Wal- nut Creek and that will mean more than 100 additional parking spots. Work should wrap up by the end of this year.

As for the Lafayette station, BART is adding a number of ADA-compliant parking spaces and improving signs, circulation through the lots, motorcycle parking, bus zones and passenger drop- off areas. That has required the temporary closure of Lot A, which should reopen in late June.

QA great thing about Southern California — diamond lane exit ramps. Any chance we’ll ever see something like that on Highway 101? They would help ease up massive bottlenecks like at the Great America Parkway exit, or any overpass on Highway 85.

Can we get carpool lane offramps in the East Bay? This would help both carpoolers and solo drivers. — Louis Bolanos and Rick Justice

AThere are direct exit ramps off carpool lanes on Interstate 80 in Contra Costa County at Richmond Parkway and on El Cerrito, feeding transit centers. There is also a proposed project for a direct HOV ramp in San Ramon off Interstate 680. But no projects are proposed in Santa Clara County.

QBuilding diverging diamond interchanges sounds great to keep traffic moving. We need to consider more of them in the Bay Area. — Phillip Hu, Oakland

AIn addition to considering this new interchange design at Wolfe Road and Interstate 280 in Cupertino, it is being considered at Highway 237 and Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale and Interstate 880 at Whipple Road in Hayward. This would shift overpass traffic in an “X” way and requires traffic on the freeway overpass or underpass to briefly drive on the opposite side of the road.