Locations close to existing kiosks would be easy to add, other areas would require new infrastructure. There are numerous locations around the city that could easily allow for metered parking:
- North of downtown all the way to Bay and east to Quadra
- Eastern and southern fringes of Downtown, streets like Meares between Quadra and Vancouver
- Cook Street Village - but also all of Cook through to Bay Street
- Hillside/Quadra Village - also all of Quadra south of there to Pandora
- Fernwood
- Streets around the James Bay hotels
- All public parking on Douglas should have pay parking, this would be from the water to the boundary with Saanich
- All of Songhees and all of the area close to Dockside Green through to the trestle to Selkirk
- Selkirk area
I think the City should consider extending the times in parking areas, especially non core ones. They should also lo0k at making some areas more expensive than others. Increase the cost per hour downtown and lower further out.
The City should also consider lengthening the times parking has to be paid for.
Finally, the city owns five parkades in downtown, is this really the highest and best of the resources of the City of Victoria to be owning parkades? Why not sell them to the private sector with a covenant that they must provide a specified number of parking spaces? The money from the sale of the sites would allow the city to build a new rec centre without having to borrow money. The expansion of the street paid parking and other changes I suggested, should make up for the lost parkade revenues. The city would also get property taxes for these sites, this is worth something.
Frankly, I would hire a company to manage all the street parking for a guaranteed amount per year with pro rated amount above a certain level.
2 comments:
I believe the city is just fine with number of paid parking spaces. No need to increase all the areas you suggest. It is so nice to go somewhere for a visit a person or a place without having to pay for parking. Let me guess you dont drive in or park in town at all?
I do drive throughout the city, and elsewhere in the region, and I would be happy to have more paid parking. I do not use public transit much because, unless I am on my own, it is cheaper for me to drive to most locations.
I also have kids and getting kids to where they need to go with bus sucks in this city. Buying the scale of groceries that I do is not functional via bus. Also the places where I shop are not that conveniently accessed by bus. There are three major locations I shop at, one is within a mile and I do walk there some of the time. Another is about 4 km as the road goes and there are no buses going there from here. The last I could do by bus, but I normally go there when I am on my way past it.
I do not like the idea of lanes of roadway being given away for free parking. If they are not moving traffic, they should be making money for the city to pay for other things. Businesses should be providing 100% of their own parking.
In part I do not mind the idea of pay parking in more places because I have lived in much bigger cities than Victoria and the cost of parking there is much, much higher than here. It is a small cost for a service that is convenient.
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