The Nicest Park and Ride in North America? Thanks ARRA!

The City of Ann Arbor boasts a vibrant downtown. A vibrant and populous downtown. According to Nancy Shore, of Ann Arbor's getDowntown Program, almost 50% of Ann Arbor employees who work downtown do not live in Ann Arbor.

That means that cities like Ann Arbor need ways to get those workers downtown. Like many urban areas, parking is notoriously scarce in downtown Ann Arbor. To encourage more commuters to leave their vehicles outside the city limits, the Ann Arbor Transit Authority (AATA)just built and opened its fifth commuter park-and-ride lot at US-23and Plymouth Road. The lot was developed in coorporation with the city of Ann Arbor, the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

There are a few unusual aspects to this park-and-ride lot:

AATA (with the help of a totally awesome AEP firm dedicated to advancing communities) procured a Maintenance Agreement with the MDOT to build a "green" parking lot.

Just how do you make a parking lot, the symbol of denatured development, "green"?Here are a few ideas:

Pre-treat stormwater runoff through infiltration trenches to collect sediment prior to being released in the pre-treatment basin and ultimately a storm water detention facility.

Construct bio-swales to treat and infiltrate stormwater before it flows to ditches.

Evaluate innovative technologies for best management practices (BMPs) such as rain gardens, bio-swales, bio-retention systems, and porous pavement sections and compare with more traditional BMPs such as storm sewers and detention basins.

Create non-motorized pathways.

Use Light Emitting Diodes (LED) in all the site light fixtures to save on energy costs.

Design receptacles for electric vehicle parking for pay metering service in the future.

Michigan’s 2010 gubernatorial candidate, former Gateway CEO and local Ann Arbor entrepreneur, Rick Snyder commented on WJR-760 Radio that this project is “the nicest park & ride in North America."

The American Recovery Reinvestment Act administered through the Federal Transit Agency funded about $1.5 million to construct the lot.