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Parking in Downtown Houston

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poser

poser

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Does anybody park their scoot down town on a regular basis?
I have jury duty tomorrow [my first] and want to ride being that I can HOV it and make it in less time
 
poser said:
Does anybody park their scoot down town on a regular basis?
I have jury duty tomorrow [my first] and want to ride being that I can HOV it and make it in less time
Click to expand...

Park on the concrete walkway between the new criminal justice center (14+- story yellow-ish building) and the "old jail" or Harris County Sherriff's Office building. The overhead walkway from the old jail to the courthouse provides shelter from the elements. The nearest intersection is Franklin @ Caroline. Enter from the Commerce street side, NOT the Franklin St side. You'll see several bikes parked there already. Mostly deputies, but they don't seem to mind others.

From there you only have to walk a couple of blocks to get to the Jury Assembly Room.

Also, the best way to get there is to stay on I-10 through downtown (DON'T take the "HOV to nowhere" at I-10 @ Studemont) and exit McKee St. Turn right on McKee, go over the pretty purple bridge, and stay in the right lane when you get past the ramp from 59. You will be forced to turn right on Commerce. Stay on Commerce and go through about 2 or 3 traffic lights. After you go through the light at Commerce @ Austin, start looking for a parking garage entrance on your left. To the left of that you'll see the walkway and all the pretty Harleys. Pull up into the parking garage driveway but immediately cut to your left and take a short jaunt down the sidewalk and up to the walkway. Don't worry...everyone does it...including me.

Good luck.
 
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I parked in the jury duty parking garge , I find it ironic that they tell you how important you are to the system but it cost you more to park than you are worth . SEYA
 
BeemerDude said:
Park on the concrete walkway between the new criminal justice center (14+- story yellow-ish building) and the "old jail" or Harris County Sherriff's Office building. The overhead walkway from the old jail to the courthouse provides shelter from the elements. The nearest intersection is Franklin @ Caroline. Enter from the Commerce street side, NOT the Franklin St side. You'll see several bikes parked there already. Mostly deputies, but they don't seem to mind others.

From there you only have to walk a couple of blocks to get to the Jury Assembly Room.

Also, the best way to get there is to stay on I-10 through downtown (DON'T take the "HOV to nowhere" at I-10 @ Studemont) and exit McKee St. Turn right on McKee, go over the pretty purple bridge, and stay in the right lane when you get past the ramp from 59. You will be forced to turn right on Commerce. Stay on Commerce and go through about 2 or 3 traffic lights. After you go through the light at Commerce @ Austin, start looking for a parking garage entrance on your left. To the left of that you'll see the walkway and all the pretty Harleys. Pull up into the parking garage driveway but immediately cut to your left and take a short jaunt down the sidewalk and up to the walkway. Don't worry...everyone does it...including me.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Man... now that is a golden nugget of information!

When I had jury duty for a week back in February I either took the bus or paid for parking on the bike.
 
them directions are spot on, ot was great
when I got there, there were only a few bikes, red goldwing, yellow ninja, harley, but by the time I left there were several more
mostly harleys and a saw a few cops park their personal bikes in there
thats for sure the way to park down town
 
poser said:
them directions are spot on, ot was great
when I got there, there were only a few bikes, red goldwing, yellow ninja, harley, but by the time I left there were several more
mostly harleys and a saw a few cops park their personal bikes in there
thats for sure the way to park down town
Click to expand...

Glad I could help. I used to park there every day until I found a free spot right behind my building. As an added bonus there are usually a few bailiffs out there grabbing a smoke during the day, so no one messes with the bikes.

The number of bikes parked in there has been a little low because of the threat of rain. On a cool sunny spring day you can almost forget it after 8:00 am.
 
jury duty again tomorrow :thumbd:
but I remembered these directions, even though there's no HOV right now
 
This worked great for me last week BeemerDude! There were about 20 bikes parked here when I left for the day. Great advice for free motorcycle parking!
 
Day late dollar short for me. I took the HOV and used the official jury duty parking. Going around in a steep tiny spiral for 7 floors with my big GS certainly had me awake by the time I arrived.
 
Txchas said:
This worked great for me last week BeemerDude! There were about 20 bikes parked here when I left for the day. Great advice for free motorcycle parking!
Click to expand...

I know this is more directed towards Houston, but FYI if you have to park in downtown Austin, it's all free now for Motorcycles. Find any spot you want (except those that are illegal to begin with) and you don't pay a dime. The Austin City Council is trying to make downtown more environmentally friendly, so they feel that opening up parking for free to Hybrids and motorcycles is one way to do that.

Wayne
 
wbrisett said:
I know this is more directed towards Houston, but FYI if you have to park in downtown Austin, it's all free now for Motorcycles. Find any spot you want (except those that are illegal to begin with) and you don't pay a dime. The Austin City Council is trying to make downtown more environmentally friendly, so they feel that opening up parking for free to Hybrids and motorcycles is one way to do that.

Wayne
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I sure wish that'd been the case when I was in central Texas! I used to park curbside right in front of the Ginger Man (because I know everyone there).
 
+1 :clap:

Wish we could get Houston to do that.

Of course, there is free motorcycle parking in Richmond! :-P

Lee


wbrisett said:
I know this is more directed towards Houston, but FYI if you have to park in downtown Austin, it's all free now for Motorcycles. Find any spot you want (except those that are illegal to begin with) and you don't pay a dime. The Austin City Council is trying to make downtown more environmentally friendly, so they feel that opening up parking for free to Hybrids and motorcycles is one way to do that.

Wayne
Click to expand...
 
I was downtown researching a case for a friend and used the free parking. Took me a couple times around the block to find it, but had no trouble once I did. FYI, here's where it is:

 
Yeah - it's a nice place to park. I parked there a month or so ago - a sheriff pulled in the same time I did. He nodded hello and that was it. No trouble in the three times I've parked there.
 
I'm probably going to try this out tomorrow. I got picked as an alternate today and was told to expect to be there 2-4 days. That way I can at least get past all the 290 traffic before hitting any main lanes. I commute on the motorcycle to the galleria every day, so driving downtown this morning in a car was torture. But I guess I stayed dry!
 
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