Quote:
Originally Posted by Clarkey
Are you a fan of installing toll booths on Deerfoot and Crowchild too?
|
There is a noticeable difference is paying for parking, which is common in our city and paying for driving down the street, which is not common in our city.
Everywhere you park you need to pay for parking. If it is at a store, you pay by purchasing goods. If it is a pay lot you stick your money in the machine. If it is a public lot, you pay by taxes and other user fees that might be associated with the public service you are using. I am not against putting direct pay parking in any location funded by the taxpayer if there is a case of that parking being high enough demand that it is full on a daily basis.
If there was a way to make people pay to drive down Deerfoot (maybe a bad example, since it is a provincial road, but whatever) then I would support such a system as long as
a) The traffic volume during that time the person is being charged is excessive or high volume.
b)The toll was paid in a manner which didn't interfere with traffic (RFID like algernon said is a good option)
c) The toll was reasonable and comparable to other services that allowed people to transport themselves around our city.
d) The purpose of the toll was to maintain or expand current roadways in our system, while encouraging people to use other forms of transit or carpool when available, reducing the strain on our transportation system.
If you use these 4 points and apply them to the parking situation at LRT stations:
a) Parking is paid for only during the day, before 6pm. After that it is free.
b) This is a point where LRT parking partially fails. They should have more payment options, with discounted monthly passes etc.
c) LRT Parking is by far the cheapest in the city for a high demand lot. For example: $3 for a day is almost half what students at the University (people with a low income source) are required to pay when they park. Factor in the combined cost of transit for people working downtown and it is $8 a day. You can't park for $8 a day downtown, let alone pay for gas or the other costs associated with the vehicle.
d) the purpose of the fee is to pay for the security of these lots and to encourage people to use the feeder bus system or carpool to the LRT stations whenever possible, reducing the strain on our transportation system.