850 Additional Parking Spaces To Open At Antioch BART Station
ANTIOCH (CBS SF) – Hundreds of additional parking spaces will open at the Antioch BART station on Tuesday, as the agency seeks to welcome more riders from Eastern Contra Costa County as offices reopen.
Agency officials said 850 parking spaces will open, following an 18 month project. The agency also reconfigured the existing lot of 1,000 spaces to add nine new ADA stalls and 29 motorcycle parking spots.
BART Board President Mark Foley said the additional spaces is the latest in a series of improvements made at the Antioch station during the pandemic.
"The station now offers plenty of parking with no wait list for monthly parking, an easier way to pay for parking, and we also added station agents in response to feedback from riders who wanted more staff presence at the station," Foley said.
The station, which opened in 2018, has exceeded ridership estimates. Before the pandemic, parking at Antioch was at a premium, with spots filling up in the early morning hours.
"I get here from 3 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. just to find parking close to the front," BART rider Andrew Gutierrez told KPIX 5 in 2018.
BART spokesperson Anna Duckworth said at the time, "I would say that we are almost a victim of our own success in this case because we did not anticipate that the ridership would so far exceed those forecast numbers before the extension opened."
As more and more workers return to offices, transit officials said ridership at the Antioch station is at 49% of pre-pandemic levels, compared to 30% systemwide.
Other changes made to the station include improved passenger pickup and drop-off, along with a new multiuse pedestrian and bike path along Slatten Ranch Road between Hillcrest Avenue at the station. BART officials said the new path decreases the likelihood of conflicts between cyclists and motorists trying to merge onto nearby Highway 4.
