We have the streets in this city to allow people to be able to move around, not to park their cars. Local governments should seek to assign real costs to on street parking. Here is what I suggest we should do:
- Extend parking meters along all streets with any commercial activity on them. This means other local governments need to bring in parking meters on their streets.
- Enforce pay parking 24/7 365 days a year.
- Raise the rates to $2.50 per hour for the whole region but further raise the rate in the highest use areas to $5 per hour. This may not be high enough.
- Make people wishing to park their cars on residential streets in front of their homes purchase permit to be able to do so. $600 per car per year would be entirely reasonable.
- Inform businesses of the intent to remove all parking along major arterial routes within five years. Douglas Street has no business having any parking on it.
This will raise more money for local governments that could then be used to improve the transportation infrastructure. I would split the net proceeds three ways - 1/3 for road improvements, 1/3 for transit and 1/3 for buying CO2 credits.
This would also level the playing field between businesses that have to use their land to park cars and those relying on the city to provide it.
The changes would also allow better traffic flows in the city. It would really help with the expansion of bike lanes and might even allow for some pavement to be taken up.
Finally, it will make some trips by car no longer make sense and get a few more people to walk, bike or bus.
Free parking on private land is something that could also be addressed by local government through the use of zoning and property taxes. Ideally some sort of reward for businesses that introduce pay parking.
4 comments:
I've never been to Victoria, but here in Toronto there would be a huge backlash against this.
You could, however, get this done if you did it in stages, and started with the busiest most traffic filled arterial streets.
I have no doubt that there would be a huge reaction against this, but then there is reaction to almost all changes, good or bad.
One of the problems with cars is the lack of effective pricing of the costs of cars. It is our modern tragedy of the commons.
Step one is to expand parking meters to a much larger area and to start shifting the hours they are enforced to earlier in the day.
Really Bernard?
I favour alternative transportation over driving as much as the next guy but given the climate in which we live, the insufficient public transit system and the average age of our local population I think your suggestions are too radical for the immediate future. How about starting with a section of the downtown core where no one can drive and no one can park? Government St. seems the most logical street and this idea has been bantered about for years.
How about a downtown parkade for bikes where you are paid a toonie for checking in your bike?
It doesn't make any difference whether there is one care or ten cars parked along the side of a road. It still doesn't open up an additional lane of traffic.
City council won't do this unless they want to get themselves voted out of office. I could see your idea working for new developments but I think the status quo should be grandfathered for all the houses already in place in Fernwood, James Bay etc. where most places don't have driveways and garages.
Not having a driveway or garage increases density, making neighboorhoods more walkable and also increasing property tax revenue for the city. So I think already sees the kind of tax revenue benefits you are talking about for the "residential parking only" part of your plan.
Regarding parking in the downtown for commercial areas, I believe that free parking during off hours is meant to draw people into the downtown core and generate business activity. So again, I think the city sees a benefit here in the sense that local business is well supported.
Just my two cents.
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