Quote:
Originally Posted by Clarkey
Why is the city implementing this same 1960's policy in the suburban outreaches in 2013? Don't you agree that it makes sense to provide an adequate supply of accessible parking in the burbs so that chimps like me only drive 5 minutes and jump on public transit vs. driving closer in or even biting the bullet and parking downtown?
I get that the city wants to squeeze people into taking the feeder buses to the ctrain stations but the reality is that the bulk of the morning commuters will never bother with the buses. It's an extra 15-30 minutes each way, that's 30-60 minutes of family or leisure time lost.
I think most would agree that if you provide adequate parking on the perimeter the rest of the city's infrastructure will benefit. It is myopic to look at each parking lot's operating costs in isolation. The city should be overbuilding suburb parking lot infrastructure to make huge gains in the core and outer core's fluidity. This is an opportunity that is hampered by the 'cars are bad' perception held by so many in planning and policy roles. Cars are actually an excellent compliment to the city's transportation strategy if leveraged properly and used sparingly (2-5 minute commutes to the train hubs).
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I agree - that's why the outermost LRT stations generally have the most parking. But how much is enough? There's only so much land available. If you start to move into structured parking to accommodate more cars it begins to cost about $40,000-$50,000 in capital costs per stall to construct that parking. Operating costs are also high.
The real solution on the edge is to begin designing our newest suburbs such that walking or taking the bus to the station is actually the most convenient and cheapest option. That means things like clustering density near the station, and building road networks that are not a labyrinth of windy roads, dead ends and cul-de-sacs. That's happened in the first post- Plan-It community designs such as Keystone in the far-north. No more cul-de-sacs in that community and a basic grid pattern of roads that will make transit far more efficient.