Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
I think that they should axe the fee, and that everyone else should take the train as a result. It'll just my commute better (I have zero intentions of taking the train myself, just think that everyone should do it).
The pure inconvenience of the charge is enough reason to get rid of it though. I stood at the station for campaign reasons over the past couple of months and watched people struggle with the machines.
As another response, the reason that people are "entitled to free parking..." is because they are paying customers for the service. Same reason that you are given free parking at Chinook Centre or most other businesses in the city that rely on your being there.
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I agree with this. They should have a monthly parking pass option that is pre-paid at a discounted rate online. Also, if you purchase a bus pass you should be able to purchase an even further discounted parking pass for that time frame.
As for parking being entitled because you can park other places for free that has some merit, but think about this: how many spots are there within a block or two of your office that are free to park all day? It has been a little while since I was there, but I remember it being a bit of a pain to find a free spot (I also could be totally out to lunch)
If I drive to the University, I can't park all day for free. Anywhere downtown? It is very rare to find a spot that is free for 2 hours, never mind all day.
The things about paying to park at C-Train stations that makes sense are:
a) It is premium parking. When it was free there were more people who wanted to use it than were able to. Simple supply and demand says you should charge for it.
b) It encourages people to not drive, and take the bus from their neighbourhoods rather than driving to the station. This reduces overall congestion so the city does not need to put in as many new roads etc. It also helps the environment, if you are wack job enough to care about that kind of thing.
c) If you are selling a product, you should sell it for a comparable price to the options. It is drastically cheaper to park at the park and ride and train downtown than it is to pay for gas to drive downtown and then park downtown. The cheapest parking I know of downtown is about $15 a day, the most expensive I know of is $30, add in a few bucks for gas and wear and tear on your cars and it is : $8 a day compared to $20-$35 a day.
Sure it isn't needed, but in this world of choices on how we are going to come up with $60million deficit, I would rather charge people to park at the train station than increase my taxes, especially if the people we are talking about are not even paying city taxes anyway.