Commuter rail parking

[relocate37]

Originally Posted by miu

Why don't you just call up the Winchester town hall and ask them this very question?

OK, did that.

Just for the record: apparently only residents can buy permits. Non-residents can buy a one-day parking pass that's no good after 90 days. When I asked, she said there's no limit to how many you can buy.

Not sure about availability, though.

[relocate37]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

The MBTA's website actually lists the parking capacity of every commuter rail stop. Just click on the name of the station for further information like number of spaces, parking rate, hours, etc.

Right, I saw that previously. It was fairly useful, insofar as "number of spaces" might be a reasonable predictor of availability, though obviously it's not going to be perfect.

They do have a "percent available" number listed for some but not all stops. I have no idea what it means, though. It could mean "spaces minus reserved/permitted/whatever." It could mean fraction left after it fills during morning rush hour. The useful number would be a fraction of time the lot fills up completely in the morning, or the average time it fills up, but no one's going to collect numbers like that.

[Parsec]

Another thing I did before I decided to purchase my house was to do a dry-run of your expected commute. So if you live in Boston currently and your wife plans on leaving Winchester at 7:30am for work, she can just leave Boston extra early 1 day to get to Winchester, then commute back into Boston.

[495neighbor]

I had to go to meetings in Winchester a few times. I ended up circling town center many times before finding a space. Based on those experiences, I would say parking is competitive.

I second what Parsec said about doing the dry-run.

[relocate37]

Parsec and 495neighbor,

Thanks for the info.

Dry-run: absolutely. We'll be buffered though insofar as we plan on renting a few months, so there's much less commitment. On the other hand, a few months of commuting problems would be enough to drive my wife crazy (she's pretty commute-spoiled), so I'm trying to minimize potential issues. I'm going to stay in a hotel/extended stay hotel for a couple weeks, so I'll also have time up there to research rentals and their respective locations, but I'm going to be starting a new job, and since it's a bit of a career switch, I'll have somewhat limited time and energy after I get up there.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by relocate37

OK, did that.

Just for the record: apparently only residents can buy permits. Non-residents can buy a one-day parking pass that's no good after 90 days. When I asked, she said there's no limit to how many you can buy.

Not sure about availability, though.

Originally Posted by relocate37

Right, I saw that previously. It was fairly useful, insofar as "number of spaces" might be a reasonable predictor of availability, though obviously it's not going to be perfect.

They do have a "percent available" number listed for some but not all stops. I have no idea what it means, though. It could mean "spaces minus reserved/permitted/whatever." It could mean fraction left after it fills during morning rush hour. The useful number would be a fraction of time the lot fills up completely in the morning, or the average time it fills up, but no one's going to collect numbers like that.

The best thing you can do to answer these questions (if you don't know someone who has the same commute) is to do a dry run as others have already suggested.