Want Monthly Parking At Dublin/Pleasanton BART? Wait 200 Years

TRI-VALLEY, CA — Ever wondered what it might take to reserve a monthly parking spot at the Dublin/Pleasanton Bay Area Rapid Transit station? About 20 monthly parking permits at the station become available each year and more than 4,000 people are waitlisted, a BART spokesperson said.

At that rate, it could take someone who joins the waitlist now 200 years to get a monthly parking permit.

Of course, some waitlisted folks might move, die or simply lose interest, and drop off the list. For some perspective, a Reddit user wrote Tuesday in a popular post on the site's Bay Area forum that they were waitlisted in position 1,436 after five years of waiting for a BART monthly parking permit, which allows riders who arrive before 10 a.m. to park close to the area.

"I am finally in the top 2,000 of getting a monthly BART parking spot," they wrote.

Commenters chimed in, sharing their own experiences with BART's monthly parking. One argued that people who don't regularly use their spaces should have them taken away. Another said they know people who don't use their monthly permit at all, but still hold onto them.

BART did not make an official available for an interview, but spokesperson James Allison wrote in an email that "the demand for parking at BART stations exceeds the supply, but the (BART) District does not currently have the money to build additional parking."

There are a total of 2,969 car parking spaces and 580 monthly parking permits at the Dublin/Pleasanton station, Allison wrote. There are 4,045 people waitlisted for a monthly spot there and about 20 monthly permits are turned over each year. Waitlisted customers must tell BART whether they are still interested in obtaining a monthly permit every 180 days, to keep their information current, according to BART's waitlist policy.

Monthly parking permits at the Dublin/Pleasanton station cost $105 per month, he wrote.

The Dublin/Pleasanton station was selected as one of nine stations to first offer a carpool program since parking is in high demand there, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost wrote in an email. Carpoolers who register via BART's app may park in the permitted or daily fee sections from 4 a.m. to 10:15 a.m., according to BART's website.

Other drivers without monthly parking permits looking for short-term parking may park for a daily fee, if they arrive weekdays between 4 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to the BART website. Daily fee parking is first-come, first-served.

BART also offers a single day permit at many stations — including the Dublin/Pleasanton station — that allows drivers arriving before 10 a.m. to park in a reserved area.