Metro Press Release
PHOENIX, AZ — Shaded parking has been added to the 20-mile METRO light rail line with the opening of a new park-and-ride lot at 7th Avenue and Camelback Road in central Phoenix.
“The new park-and-ride provides greater access to transit and to life along the line,” said METRO CEO Steve Banta. “And it couldn’t have come at a better time with ridership on the rise.”
The new lot adds 123 spaces, 62 percent of which are shaded by overhead canopies, to a system that now contains more than 3,600 free-to-use parking spaces for transit riders. The lot was built with neighborhood involvement and provides a well-lit and secure parking environment. It will help to serve the more than 45,000 weekday riders and large weekend crowds.
This project was financed using $3.9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds provided to METRO by City of Phoenix for use in building this lot and adding shade canopies to existing Phoenix park-and-rides. More than 50 percent of the lots at Central/Camelback and 19th Avenue/Camelback are now shaded.
“We are pleased to see that the ARRA program is doing what it intended to do, which was to put people to work on jobs that aided in economic recovery,” commented Federal Transit Administrator for Region 9, Leslie Rogers. “And transit projects play a key role in helping the economy improve.”