Conference 7.286::digital

    What's wrong with a 1/2 mile walk?
    
    
    
    I think it's pretty costly to build a parking garage.  What would
    be a better solution would be for DEC to do a better job of promoting
    van pools (by making the cost somewhat reasonable.  Other companies
    do this by paying for the van and the commuters only have to pay
    for expenses, why not DEC)
    
    
    -bill

    re: .1
    
    1/2 mile walk?  In the summer its fine.  How about during a
    New England winter?  That could be pretty unpleasant...
    
    (I don't work in the Mill, but parking in ZK is getting
    pretty tight...)

    	Good idea...but parking by badge number, please.
    
    Keith
    

    As someone said once, if you're important enough to be
    parked close to the building, you should be the first
    one to work in the morning. The logistics of keeping up
    with badge numbers as people retire, relocate, are ter-
    minated, etc., make it unworkable. The fact that someone 
    has been here longest only proves that they have been here
    longest, not that they deserve privileges.

Keith, your constant harping on the subject of parking by badge numbers makes
me wonder if you have really considered the mix of people who park at the Mill.
It's not only the thousands of employees who work there, but also several
hundred employees daily who work at other locations and go to meetings in the
Mill.

Parking by badge numbers at any DEC engineering facility is simply nonsense.

/john

    	I dont really harp...but do repeatedly suggest solutions I've
    seen implemented elsewhere successfully.  We seem to reinvent the
    wheel from time to time.  I have not been to the Mill in a few years
    but somehow I think I've seen a bit bigger facilities with similar
    situations with a lot less parking problems.
    
    	Or said another way...we have a problem with the "set theory",
    that is we think the set of solutions=the set of our solutions.
    Has anyone suggested going to an ourside consultant for help?
    
    Keith
    
    

I have a relatively low badge number, so I suppose I should be pleased
at the proposal.  On the other hand, I usually get to the Mill at 7:30-7:45,
so it probably won't make a difference.  Besides, the lower Thompson
parking lot is not more than a quarter-mile long.  (A half-mile takes you from
the Main St. entrance, down Main St, and up Sudbury St. all the way
to Rt. 117.)

Now, if we're going to do anything for us poor folks with low badge
numbers, my vote would be for passenger elevators.

Martin.

    Parking by badge number?  I have groups in MK and BXB, do a great
    deal of business in LKG and some in ZK.  I have a reasonably low
    badge number.  The BXB quarters are semi-temporary since I was in
    LKG and will be moving to LKG2.  
    
    The badge number solution would give me a good place in BXB which
    would be open a fair amount of the time and far distant parking
    in 4 other locations that I visit frequently.  In addition my space
    would have be re-numbered (looks like a bubble sort the way we move
    facilities) when I left LKG, when I arrived in BXB, when I left
    BXB and when I arrived in LKG again (this would also entail 40 other
    people).
    
    It may work in a single, somewhat static facility, but not in the
    much greater Maynard area.
    

    By the way....
    
    
    Last week as I was leaving, there was a woman walking around the
    lot with one of those roll-it-along-tape-measures measuring the
    parking lot, spaces, separation, etc, etc.  I asked her what she
    was doing and she said that they were going to 'do something' to
    make more spots in the lower thompson lot.    I know this can be
    done, because many of the spots are too wide/long and could be shrunk.
    
    
    
    
    -bill

    	She's measurin' so as to have room for the badge numbers!!
    
    Keith
    
    

                They repainted the Main St lot last weekend and added
        (guess) about 10 more spaces (It still fills as fast!!).
                
                /s/     Bob

    	Did they put badge numbers on'm??
    
    Keith
    
    

    Re: .12
    
    Sure they did!  See, my badge number's right there on the spot by
    the door.  And there's the numbers of everyone who works in ZK,
    MK, CXO and Valbonne!  Oh, sorry, we ran out of spots for you,
    Keith - you'll have to park in Acton.
    
    					Steve

    	Hey!  I lived in Acton TWICE!!  Once in 69 and again in 73...are
    there any more jobs there????
    
    Keith
    
    

    Is DEC getting any smaller?  Is the Mill employing any less employees?
    If the answer is no, and parking is truly as difficult as everyone
    appears to agree, then wouldn't the parking deck suggestion mentioned
    in .0 be a viable solution?  It would be a 'one-shot' expense and,
    assuming that DEC isn't intending on moving it's headquarters
    from the Mill anytime soon, I think it would be a good idea.  Even 
    a small deck would be enough to relieve some of the overcrowding.
    
    It has been a number of years since I've had an opportunity to get
    up that way but, if parking has become any worse than it was when
    I saw it, maybe a parking deck should be considered (better than
    those silly badge numbers).

   my 2� worth,
    
-Andy    

    
    I wonder what the town of Maynard would think of a parking deck.
    Were I a town father, any project that would invite more traffic
    into the already bursting downtown area would not be high on my
    list.

  If the town of Maynard is so concerned about reducing traffic,
why don't they ask DEC to promote vanpools and carpools more
vigorously? Reducing parking is NOT the way to discourage people
from driving. Uncle Sam tried this in greater Boston and several
other metro areas in the 1970's. According to another reply in this
conference, the federal restrictions on parking extended to Marl-
boro and that is why there is not enough parking at MRO3. 
  I think a parking deck at the Mill is an excellent idea. There
are no dilapidated houses near the Mill that could be torn down to
create more parking space, and a plan to fill in more of the mill
pond to create parking would face a mountain of red tape. 

    Kieth.........are you badge # 2 or something?
    
    Check out the discussion about the lack of parking at the Mill
    in note number 266.
    
    bs
    

Re .16:

I wonder how people who live near the Mill who always have cars parked in
front of their houses would feel about a parking garage on Digital property?

Re .17:

I don't think MR3 construction started before the summer of '81, if
that makes a difference.

Re .18:

FYI, Keith's badge number is less than 1/3rd of yours, Mr. Palindrome.
				/AHM

      I suggested the parking garage partly because the town of
    Maynard built a small two-level parking garage on Nason St.
    which has made it easier to park downtown for a few minutes
    weekdays and weekends.  DEC has also upped the number of 
    "Customer Blue Pass" parking spaces from 10 or so to what
    appears to be 40-50.  The word "Customer" should really be
    "Vice-President/Sr. Consultant Staff" since that's who really
    uses the spaces 99% of the time.  I can't believe that a 100
    space parking garage out of reinforced concrete could cost
    much more than $250-500 k, which seems small compared to what
    DEC must spend on maintenance in the Mill every year.  
    
      The idea of reserved parking spaces on badge numbers does
    not appeal to me.  All I want is a chance not to park next
    to St. Bridget's which has to be more than 1/4 mile to 3-3!
    
    Greg
    

    I think that building a garage of one or two stories over 1/2 or
    1/3 of the Lower Thompson lot is the solution to the problem. DEC
    owns the land. The land is ugly anyway. Now DECies are parking all
    over Maynard, so a garage on DEC property might ease the problem.
    
    As for traffic -- it's happening now. The Mill is capacity limited.
    I've heard that the Mill is full up now, so more spaces wouldn't
    lead to more people -- it would simply give parking to those already
    here. 
    
    The construction hassles (temporary) couldn't be any worse than
    the chaotic and unsafe situation we have here now. And in the end
    the garage would be built, and the situation eased.
    
    Van pools are a good solution for some, but most people will not
    or cannot use them. If I had a 9-5 job with no interplant travel
    I might vanpool, but I don't.
    
    Bottom line, in my view: DEC has built most of its facilities in
    far-flung towns with little or no public transportation. In almost
    every case you must drive to work at DEC. This being the case, I
    think the company should provide adequate, safe parking.
    
    DC

I vote for at least one, and maybe two, parking garages; one in the blue
pass parking lot which is between Bldg 21 & Main St, and one in the Main 
St. lot. They could easily be designed to blend in with the rest of the
buildings of the Mill.

It's a 1/4 mile from my office in 21-3 to halfway up the Lower Thompson
lot. It's probably another 1/4 mile from there to the lot behind
St Brigett's. 

We now have parking lot shuttles between Bldg 21, 12 & Lower Thopmson. This
has been a great help for those that get here before the lot fills up. 
Actually the shuttles go over to Parker Street, that's where people are
supposed to park if the Mill lots are full.

Jim

    re .22
    
    Why would anyone want another building that "blends in with the
    rest of the buildings of the Mill" ???!!?!?!?!?
    
    ;-)

    
    But if DEC solved it's parking problem, how much would the town
    of Maynard lose in parking tickets. When I worked at the Mill, there
    were several of us who believed in supporting Maynard at $3.00/ticket.
    
    

    Easily solved - DEC should by the whole d*** town out 
    of petty cash. :-)

    RE:.25
    	No, I disagree.  They should leave "Tories Sub Shoppe", or whatever
    it's called now....the rest should, indeed, go.
    
    KMP