Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
Regarding parking: while 1,500 stalls sounds inadequate at first blush, I would point out that zero stalls were included with the Winnipeg arena. None.
Reason being that downtown is already chock full of parking. People simply park wherever they normally park and walk a block or two or three to the game. And if that is possible in Winnipeg, it should be possible anywhere.
How many people work downtown in Calgary? 200,000 or so? They manage to park everyday (though I agree it is an expensive nightmare). Surely 20,000 people can get to a game - especially if there are 1,500 more spots than Winnipeg makes do with.
As someone mentioned above, the trend with downtown arenas is less and less parking to encourage public transportation. Frankly, I was surprised they announced any parking at all.
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I would be interested to see some kind of map or table outlining the "park downtown and walk" options you outlined above. How long of a walk (distance & time) for each of the closest public parking spots within reasonable distance to accommodate 20,000 people. Even for the argument of "park downtown and hop on the c-train for a couple stops" doesn't really make a lot of sense to me because the c-train cars will already be full with other people choosing to use public transit to take to the game.
What this boils down to, is that you're basically saying there are 2 options to get to the new arena: walk or take public transit. If we can get a reasonable answer to these 2 questions, I can take back my stance on parking:
1) how many people can fit on each train (include all 3/4 cars) and how many trains would it take to get all 20,000 people to the game, and how much time would that take (assuming 10-15 minute train intervals which is common in the evenings)... IE does our transit system have the capacity to accommodate the number of riders required in the short period of time.
2) how many public parking stalls are within a reasonable walking distance to the new arena, # of stalls, distance to the arena
I just don't think using Winnipeg as an example is really that fair. It's a smallish downtown, with plenty of public parking within a few blocks on ALL sides of the arena. In Calgary all users would likely be parking downtown (East) and all walking West towards the arena.