I’ve done this once before, but I want to do it again. Probably because I’m tired and pissy.
Why should parking at the Park ‘n Ride be free? Or as close to free as possible?
What I’ve gleaned so far as to the rationale of this is that people don’t want to pay for the convenience of busing from home. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Convenience costs money. You think that 7-11 should be required to reduce its milk prices to the same as Safeway, that way you don’t have to unfairly pay more for the added convenience?
Here’s the facts (or as close to what I perceive as facts as I can get while I’m both sick with a cold AND ranting):
- Making a choice to live outside of downtown is a lifestyle choice. It’s as valid as any other lifestyle choice, but it doesn’t mean that you get the best of all amenities. There are costs and benefits of every single lifestyle choice.
- A transit pass costs $83 per month, and will entitle you to ride either from an LRT station, OR, all the way from the bus closest to your home which leads there.
- The desire to not spend any additional money on parking at the LRT station is your statement that you should have all of the convenience of someone who has purchased a home within walking distance of a station without paying the additional dollars for additional value that said home comes with.
- Your purchase (or renting) of a residence that is not immediately accessible to a single bus that takes you to an LRT station within a bearable amount of time is, SURPRISE!, a choice.
- If you choose to drive downtown because you have to pay $83 plus an additional $60 for parking each month, when parking lots (for the most part) are $200 and up (plus gas, plus the hassle of traffic, plus, plus, plus…), you have poor math skills. $143 is considerablely less than $200. Now, if you believe that you get an additional $57 or more in value by now driving, GREAT! You’ve made a lifestyle choice. Just because you’re not happy about spending more in making that choice doesn’t mean you should get the benefits for free.
- If people are parking illegally in nearby neighbourhoods, ticket them! I used to speed like a crazy man on Deerfoot. Back around 2000, I got six tickets totally over a thousand bucks in fines in a single month (fines were much cheaper back then). I don’t speed on Deerfoot anymore. This is called, “learning how it works”. Ticket the crap out of the illegal parkers. $45 a day in parking tickets will SOON have them realizing just how cheap $3 a day is.
- If there’s a goal of reducing the number of cars on the road, then keeping it moderately expensive (and I know some people’s situation is such that $60 is expensive) will encourage them to leave the cars at home. Not just at the station, but at home!
I’ve not heard any reason that comes anywhere close to satisfying why parking ought to be free. It is a benefit to be able to park at the LRT. As I understand it, (and I’m a close-to-downtown-dweller, so I’ve never had to deal with it…take note…lifestyle choice), back when parking was free at stations, you had to arrive quite early to get a spot, otherwise you were screwed. This is the problem with no cost on a tangible benefit. The supply is quickly depleted.
Now, I’ve had a Twitter convo with someone who thinks this is just a cash grab by the City. After all, it was free for years. I don’t doubt that for one second! This is a money-hungry city council who loves to spend anything they can get their filthy mittens on. For the record, I’m in the business of reducing the amount of taxes that property and business owners have to pay to the City, so I thoroughly understand the desire to give the City less. But giving a tangible benefit to a few users of services at the cost of the general coffers is not on my list of things that are good. I’d much rather that the users pay for what they use.
My full disclosure: I’m open to being convinced that free or near-free for parking at LRT stations is a good thing. But you’d best be backing it up with studies that show it, otherwise I’m guessing you just don’t like the change from a free benefit to one you have to pay for. Near as I can tell, there’s no logical reason for the lots to be without charge.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
“Why should parking at the Park ‘n Ride be free? Or as close to free as possible?”
simple. because whiny, entitled calgarians have had it that way forever. god forbid we have a user-pay system or that these whiners try and think outside of the “car-culture” box. change is bad. it hurts. thats what the majority think.
all of this wont matter in the very near future when gasoline is back up around $1.50/L – people wont be able to afford to drive as often or as far and taking the bus from your immediate neighbourhood will suddenly make economic sense.
I totally agree with your points. However, I do think that there was a problem with how it was implemented. They just said it will go towards future transit initiatives. This is very vague. I would have liked to see them say specifically what the money will be put towards.
I am an inner city dweller as well, but when I couldn’t afford to live inner-city had a house in the burbs, I didn’t find walking to my closest bus stop to be that close at all. If you want to encourage people to use the bus system rather than driving to the train station, parking fees is a start, but the bus system also needs to be improved.
The issue is that people think the money is going into the pockets of the government rather than actually benefiting the service that they’re paying in to.
You and I see eye to eye on a lot. Quite frankly the fee is minimal but it’s the actual transit system that sucks. If you want to see it done well look at Greater Vancouver’s system. Now there’s one that works. I live in the burbs close to work. Roughly a 10 minute drive. According to transit the fastest way to get there would be three buses for over an hour commute time! If it was a park and Ride it’s be about half that. My coworker lives across town near MRC and it takes him two buses and a train and less time to do the commute. 5 times the distance (easily) in less time?! This makes no sense. I could also take two buses and a train ride but then my trip is even longer. I don’t think it’s so much the pay to park I have the issue with as much as it is the entire system. Which is why I CHOOSE to drive. I would love to do transit and if I worked downtown I would…but from one burb I another it makes no sense.
Maybe the city should look at investing the cash from parking into some real planners. Get it right and do it well.