West Oakland BART Parking Options

My colleagues pay the $10-$15 per day for parking.  They say it's safe as long as it's light and other BART passengers are around.  The area appears to be getting better but I still see a lot of broken car window glass on the ground which means cars are getting broken into.  To me the area is very unsafe day or night.  One other thing to keep in mind is there are no parking/street sweeping days.  Last time I parked there I received a $65 ticket.   The sign was missing an the entire block was filled with cars.

Be extra careful parking there.

I've been an occasional WOak BART parker for years, and over the last year I've become a couple-of-times-a-week parker there, usually showing up between 8:30 and 9.  I can tell you about the two choices I usually rely on. My first choice is the 533 Kirkham lot.  It's rarely full before 9, and just went up to $10/day ($10.35 if you pay by phone).  I've never noticed broken glass inside the lot, but they do also sell the street spots on Kirkham just outside their gate, for $1 less a day, and I often see broken glass there.  I've never noticed signs for monthly parking at that lot, but, then, I'm not currently in the market for monthly parking, so I may have glazed over them.  The pay-for-parking app they use makes it very convenient to pay (I should add that the 533 Kirkham lot also has a satellite lot with a separate entrance on Mandela, right across from the BART station entrance, which has about 20 spots in it. It fills up early, but you can get lucky there).  The "Mandela Lot," the giant one with the entrance on 5th St, does sell monthly parking, and the space they reserve for monthly parkers is the one that's closest to the station, with a ped entrance right on 5th and Mandela.  They open their monthly-reserved area to day-use parking usually around 9:30 or 10, when their other lot fills up, so it doesn't seem they have a problem with filling up. I've never felt personally unsafe walking to either of those lots, and I've done it plenty of times later in the evening/when it's dark (although everyone jaywalks across Mandela to get to the Kirkham lot, and that's an accident waiting to happen!).  One other option:  buying day use passes on the BART website.  I think it's more trouble than it's worth, keeping track of it all.  But I know people who do it.  And might as well put yourself on the waitlist.  A year ago I was 1800 something; now I'm 500 something. Some day!

We've parked at or near the West Oakland BART for 15 years. 

We like to get in at 6 am, so we're able to get a parking space in the non-reserved BART parking lot for $8 (which is going up in August). 

If we start later - 8 - 5 or 9 - 6, we park in one of the four parking lots in the area (depending on which one has a space):

1.  the gas station;

2.  the one next to the gas station (ABM);

3.  the large one on 6th Street; or

4.  the one on 7th street near the The Crucible.

We've had only one problem in 15 years parking on the street and have also seen broken auto windows.  Make sure you don't have person items out in the open.  The one time we had our passenger-side window broken, we had a shopping bag in the back seat with donations for Goodwill.  We paid $200 to have the window replaced (company came to us, cleaned the glass in our car and replaced window glass -- it wasn't the company that advertises on TV -- Satellite(?)'s estimate was the highest).

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