So who paid Transit parking fee's?

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Why should the 90% of transit riders that don't use park and ride subsidize the 10% that do? Parking lots cost money to maintain, who else should pay for them, besides primarily those who chose to use them? Surface is an exceedingly wasteful use of land, and is expensive - why should parking as a commodity be free?

Why should people who only take the C-train pay the same fare as the person who takes a shuttle bus to the station as well? Those buses cost money to maintain, who else should pay for them, besides primarily those who chose to use them?

You could also go so far to say why should the guy taking the train from Somerset to Dalhousie pay the same fare as the guy going from 39th ave to City Hall?

The reason is Calgary transit has always operated under the principal that your fare is X not matter if it's train, bus, parking, or some combination of all of them. To make parkers have to pay goes against all of that.

Plus what makes I like least about this is the reason I take the train. Most of the time I take the train is after I've been standing waiting for the 6:35, then 6:45 then 6:50 express bus but none of them show up. At that point my only hope of making it downtown close to on time for work is to drive to Anderson and hop the train. This happens about once per month to me. Yeah, it's only $3 per month- but it's the principal there where I pay more because of a Calgary Transit screwup.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Assuming the hitmen game is not during between 7am and 5pm on weekdays, you won't have to pay this user fee. Council voted to remove the fee for evenings and weekends. Problem solved for you.

So did you jump to a conclusion, or is this news report out of date?

http://www.am770chqr.com/News/Local/...spx?ID=1072221

Budgetary implications will be looked at and a report will come back to city council on April 6th as to the impact of not charging the $3 fee after 6 p.m. weekdays and on weekends.
Aldermen Andre Chabot and Joe Connelly were able to convince their colleagues on city council to look at that idea. The two aldermen are worried that no one will pay at a park-and-ride lot on weekends, when they can simply drive into the downtown and park for $2 at many lots on weekends.

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Why should people who only take the C-train pay the same fare as the person who takes a shuttle bus to the station as well? Those buses cost money to maintain, who else should pay for them, besides primarily those who chose to use them?

You could also go so far to say why should the guy taking the train from Somerset to Dalhousie pay the same fare as the guy going from 39th ave to City Hall?

The reason is Calgary transit has always operated under the principal that your fare is X not matter if it's train, bus, parking, or some combination of all of them. To make parkers have to pay goes against all of that.

Plus what makes I like least about this is the reason I take the train. Most of the time I take the train is after I've been standing waiting for the 6:35, then 6:45 then 6:50 express bus but none of them show up. At that point my only hope of making it downtown close to on time for work is to drive to Anderson and hop the train. This happens about once per month to me. Yeah, it's only $3 per month- but it's the principal there where I pay more because of a Calgary Transit screwup.

It's $3 a day dude!

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by ken0042

plus what makes i like least about this is the reason i take the train. Most of the time i take the train is after i've been standing waiting for the 6:35, then 6:45 then 6:50 express bus but none of them show up. At that point my only hope of making it downtown close to on time for work is to drive to anderson and hop the train. this happens about once per month to me. Yeah, it's only $3 per month- but it's the principal there where i pay more because of a calgary transit screwup.

Originally Posted by flacker

it's $3 a day dude!

lrn2read plz $3/day * 1day/mo = $3/mo

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

So did you jump to a conclusion, or is this news report out of date?

http://www.am770chqr.com/News/Local/...spx?ID=1072221

I believe it's the first one.

[Dion]

It was reported on the evening news that transit riders were flocking to other lots to avoid the $3.00 fee.

[Dion]

Budgetary implications will be looked at and a report will come back to city council on April 6th as to the impact of not charging the $3 fee after 6 p.m. weekdays and on weekends.
Aldermen Andre Chabot and Joe Connelly were able to convince their colleagues on city council to look at that idea. The two aldermen are worried that no one will pay at a park-and-ride lot on weekends, when they can simply drive into the downtown and park for $2 at many lots on weekends.

I guess those that work weekends or evening will get a break from the daily $3.00 fee. Won't be long before the M-F/9-5 transit riders pick up on this and cry foul.

[jammies]

This isn't going to affect me at all but I still think it's being poorly implemented.

The charge should be per person, not per car - $3 if you're alone, $1 with 2 people, and free if you have 3 or more in the vehicle. That way you open up parking space by encouraging people to carpool and discouraging those that come alone; the parking lots will service more people with the same amount of space.

Of course you would need to have actual people manning the lot instead of their fancy gadgetry. So it might cost the city more, but it would probably still be a bit revenue-positive; you reduce traffic; and you maximize the utility of your existing infrastructure. Too late now I suppose.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Why should the 90% of transit riders that don't use park and ride subsidize the 10% that do? Parking lots cost money to maintain, who else should pay for them, besides primarily those who chose to use them? Surface is an exceedingly wasteful use of land, and is expensive - why should parking as a commodity be free?

Why should you get to take a bus and a train for the same price as someone who drives there and takes the train only? I'd wager those buses cost more to operate then a parking lot.

[shermanator]

Personally, this whole situation doesn't effect me as I bought a condo within walking distance of City Centre station, so unless it's -20, I'm walking to the train station. When the West leg of the LRT is built, I'll be two blocks from a station.

But, one way that the city is trying to increase ridership is by building more high rises in areas directly around C-Train stations, so that people can walk to the train instead of having to use Park n Ride. Transit Oriented Development Plans are already being thrown around for Chinook, Brentwood, Banff Trail, Anderson, stations, but there seems to be a lot of concern from nearby residents over these types of developments.

Just for the sake of argument, would anyone consider moving closer to the train station to be able to walk? Maybe not for the posters with families, but for the young 20 somethings entering the housing market, would you consider it?

[nik-]

The solution to this is just shutting down the park and rides and implementing zone based fares like a lot of other cities do.

[calgaryrocks]

if i were to continue working downtown and wanted to buy a first home i would defintly consider it. waiting for the bus sucks, and im not driving downtown. the price/location/actual place would have to be right. its a good idea

[MoneyGuy]

I don't live in Calgary but I'm pretty sure your council isn't as stupid as many of you think they are. Transit services cost money and this is one way of paying for the service.

[Clarkey]

Originally Posted by Claeren

Isn't the advantage here that you can actually get a parking spot each morning?

If you have 8000 people fighting for 1000 parking spots it is pretty basic (and conservative minded) economics to charge what the top 1000 people are willing to pay and then use that revenue elsewhere in the system.

It is actually a bigger waste of tax payer money to NOT charge for parking, as each single free parking spot with more than one customer is literally leaving money on the table. ANY private business would charge for a limited commodity like parking yet you don't want the government to be as financially responsible? I don't get it??


People just don't like change....



Claeren.

The people that use Prince's Island Park should get charged $3 to go there. I don't use it so why should I pay for the maintenance of it? There's probably max 10,000 people using this park on any given day in March in yet I and 990,000 other Calgarians have to subsidize the minority's use of this park. Not to mention that a lot of the people that use this park work downtown or live in expensive condo's downtown and are wealthy.

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by calgaryrocks

if i were to continue working downtown and wanted to buy a first home i would defintly consider it. waiting for the bus sucks, and im not driving downtown. the price/location/actual place would have to be right. its a good idea

There are places close to downtown under $200k (i bought a condo in Sunalta for 190k for example), and with the housing market going down, it's not an impossible find.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

The people that use Prince's Island Park should get charged $3 to go there. I don't use it so why should I pay for the maintenance of it? There's probably max 10,000 people using this park on any given day in March in yet I and 990,000 other Calgarians have to subsidize the minority's use of this park. Not to mention that a lot of the people that use this park work downtown or live in expensive condo's downtown and are wealthy.

Nice job as coming across as incredibly whiney.

[pepper24]

Originally Posted by shermanator

Personally, this whole situation doesn't effect me as I bought a condo within walking distance of City Centre station, so unless it's -20, I'm walking to the train station. When the West leg of the LRT is built, I'll be two blocks from a station.

But, one way that the city is trying to increase ridership is by building more high rises in areas directly around C-Train stations, so that people can walk to the train instead of having to use Park n Ride. Transit Oriented Development Plans are already being thrown around for Chinook, Brentwood, Banff Trail, Anderson, stations, but there seems to be a lot of concern from nearby residents over these types of developments.

Just for the sake of argument, would anyone consider moving closer to the train station to be able to walk? Maybe not for the posters with families, but for the young 20 somethings entering the housing market, would you consider it?

I think that building residences around transit is brilliant and good for the future of the city. I am a family man and when we bought our most recent place we made sure that we were close to transit.

[Rathji]

Why don't we just exterminate all transit parking spots?

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by pepper24

I am glad that instead of increasing the fees for all transit riders that they are doing the parking fees seperate. Why have the majority of the transit users that don't use the parking lots pay.

The parking lots cost money to upkeep and keep secure so let the parkers pay.

I'm absolutely fine with this as well. Let the user pay for the service.

But if this is the case, then I want to see a dramatic change to how platform access is granted. There are far too many freeloaders using transit right now and it drives up the prices for the honest people who buy the monthly passes and pay their fares every time they use the c-train.

In successful transit systems, they make it very difficult to jump the turnstiles and get on for free. Fare avoidance is a HUGE problem in the city and there's no doubt in my mind installation of something like this would bump up the revenue by at least 20%.

I also want to see a significant drop in break-ins and car thefts from park n ride lots. If people are paying $3 for the increased maintenance costs and patrolling costs, there better be some effective patrolling.

For some reason though, I doubt the city is able to implement this and use the $10 million or so it generates annually effectively.

[Clarkey]

Let's look at things the ludicrous things the city aldermen have been trying play social engineer on:

• banning plastic water bottles (wtf?)
• banning drive-thru's?
• demonizing driving a car to take transit (c-train parking)
• banning plastic bags

Are there not better, more productive things to focus on? I gaurantee there are at least 100 other better examples of cross-subsidization going on in the city. I don't even drive to the c-train station and this annoys the shart out of me. Most people are driving 5km max to park at the c-train. This is saving Calgary Transit lots of money. If anything these drivers are subsidizing the rest of the system. What are the operating costs associated with parking lots... paving them once every 20 years???

Why not charge the c-train prices based on a zonal system? This should have been the first initiative, long before parking fees. Why does the guy getting on at Sunnyside pay the same as the guy getting on at Dalhousie? Why does the guy getting on at Stampede station pay the same as the guy getting on at Somerset/Bridlewood? The 5-10,000 people that park each day is nothing.

Got damn myopic bullshart.