New Calgary transit fees.

[united]

I am looking at moving from deep in the NW to pretty far in the South.
For you regular users, what time do the lots fill up down there with the new charges?

Thanks!

[CaptainCrunch]

When I've used it, the lots aren't filling up. Anderson looks about a quarter empty when I look through my window.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Honestly, I think Calgary is in a tough spot here. Calgary desperately needs more mass transit--more train lines and more trains. This costs money. That money has to come from somewhere, so the options are:
1. Charge for parking.
2. Raise fares.
3. Get more money from municipal taxes.

I realize it's a hardship for some people, but free parking at train stations really isn't the norm in big cities. If you don't like parking fees, do you prefer higher fares? Higher taxes? It's kind of a Hobson's choice here.

[Resolute 14]

As noted though, they appear to actually be costing themselves money via this stupidity.

It will be very interesting to see the results of the next ridership survey relative to the last one, and to see if the city really has shot itself in the foot.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

As noted though, they appear to actually be costing themselves money via this stupidity.

It will be very interesting to see the results of the next ridership survey relative to the last one, and to see if the city really has shot itself in the foot.

I don't see how it could be costing them money.

I think a conservative estimate would be to say that every empty spot in the parking lot equates to one person no longer taking transit.

So with that assumption, for every empty spot the City is not taking in $5/d (this of course assumes no one has transit passes, and in the case of brentwood, the spots weren't used by students looking for free parking, both of which we know aren't true and skew it even more in the city's favour)
But for every full spot the city is taking in an additional $3/d.

So unless the parking lot is less than 63% full, then it's a break even proposition. Brentwood seems to be >80% full most of the time.

And that's ignoring a few of things that would skew it to an even lower % required such as:

1) Some people no longer parking at the pay stations are either parking where it is free, or taking feeder busses, either way the city isn't losing their $5. Nor are they losing that $5 from students that park at Brentwood to avoid paying for parking at the university as I did for the better part of 2 years.

2) As mentioned transit passes mean that not everyone is paying $5/d. Granted it's close, but that would still skew the % even lower.

[mykalberta]

What percetage of people actually pay the transit would you suspect?

When I lived near the Banff Trail station, they never once checked tickets durring the rush hour times, and I only every got checked on the weekend.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

What percetage of people actually pay the transit would you suspect?

When I lived near the Banff Trail station, they never once checked tickets durring the rush hour times, and I only every got checked on the weekend.

Exactly, I even know a few people who don't pay, so that skews it even more, as that eats away a the $5 "Lost" for every empty parking spot.

[mykalberta]

If CT wanted to increase revenues IMO, they would instutue some sort of turnstyle at the locations where the platform is only accessible by bridge. That IMO would bring in loads more cash than the parking fee. Put in a few turnstyles with a security camera, have some 15$ student operate it for a few hours every morning at the 4 or 5 stations at the end of the line. Shouldnt be that expensive.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

I don't see how it could be costing them money.

I think a conservative estimate would be to say that every empty spot in the parking lot equates to one person no longer taking transit.

So with that assumption, for every empty spot the City is not taking in $5/d (this of course assumes no one has transit passes, and in the case of brentwood, the spots weren't used by students looking for free parking, both of which we know aren't true and skew it even more in the city's favour)
But for every full spot the city is taking in an additional $3/d.

So unless the parking lot is less than 63% full, then it's a break even proposition. Brentwood seems to be >80% full most of the time.

And that's ignoring a few of things that would skew it to an even lower % required such as:

1) Some people no longer parking at the pay stations are either parking where it is free, or taking feeder busses, either way the city isn't losing their $5. Nor are they losing that $5 from students that park at Brentwood to avoid paying for parking at the university as I did for the better part of 2 years.

2) As mentioned transit passes mean that not everyone is paying $5/d. Granted it's close, but that would still skew the % even lower.

And what is the overhead of operating this system? How much to install the pay meters? How much to pay people to monitor the lots, etc?

[corporatejay]

It shocks me that Calgary still runs the train on the honour system. What a joke. Think of the revenues from instituting a turnstyle system, the rest of the free world (and non-free world) seem to use this method and it works fine.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

And what is the overhead of operating this system? How much to install the pay meters? How much to pay people to monitor the lots, etc?

Fair enough, but how much revenue do they take in with tickets?

Untill we see the actual costs/revenue we're just going to go in circles.

[calgaryrocks]

Originally Posted by united

I am looking at moving from deep in the NW to pretty far in the South.
For you regular users, what time do the lots fill up down there with the new charges?

Thanks!

Canyon meadows hasn't really filled up from what I've seen. as a previous poster mentioned, lots of room at anderson as well

[calgaryrocks]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

It shocks me that Calgary still runs the train on the honour system. What a joke. Think of the revenues from instituting a turnstyle system, the rest of the free world (and non-free world) seem to use this method and it works fine.

totally agree. its crazy, of course now they are checking alot more, but they wouldn't have to do even that if they put turnstiles in. its not like theres that many stations yet...

[Huntingwhale]

I used to park at Anderson, but now I can drive all the way up to Chinook to park. Before the fees, I could only get a spot at Chinook on friday. All of the side streets nearby are full.

[North East Goon]

I heard many of the parking lots are using less than 60% capacity at this point. That's a pretty significant drop-off. My question is where have all the cars gone? More just driving to work or are they parking in neighbourhoods/businesses?

[malcolmk14]

Westside is about 85-90% capacity. Noticed a lot more people on the feeder busses.

[albertGQ]

Any thoughts about the air conditioning being added to the LRTs?

[calgaryrocks]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Any thoughts about the air conditioning being added to the LRTs?

I think they should, it gets really hot in those trains when they are full, even this morning, it was 10 degrees. when its 20+ outside and the trains are moderately full, it is tooo hot.
although the article i read this morning on it mentioned comfort shouldn't me the main focus if you want more people to ride the train. they said it should be faster, which i think is true, but only one of the issues. I don't know that increasing ridership is the biggest concern, the ridership in calgary is actually quite good, considering the lack of train lines...

[4X4]

I heard a snippet on the radio yesterday that the new plan to eliminate the evening and weekend charges is "going to cause a $1.5m shortfall in the CT budget". So they're going to do some cost saving measures such as using 2 car trains on sundays and doing some maintenance work in house instead of contracting it out.

Seriously. This came out of the mouth of the spokeman for CT. So what's the translation? If they had the money they'd have blown it on things that they didn't need to?

I swear this city and all of it's companies (enmax, CT, etc) is run by a bunch of rucking fetards that wouldn't survive one day in the real world.

[Dion]

Calgary parking officers on pace to write more than 60,000 tickets in 2009 -Manager blames customer avoidance of park-and-pay transit lots

Dale Fraser said Thursday that as of June 5, parking enforcement officers have written 26,494 tickets to people illegally stashing their cars in places such as store parking lots.

That’s on pace to total 63,585 tickets by the end of the year, more than 40 per cent more tickets than the 44,807 handed out last year for similar offences. It’s also higher than the 42,634 tickets issued in 2007.

“They’re up this year because we’re responding to calls adjacent to transit lots,” Fraser said. “They’re Superstore parking lots, shopping mall parking lots, things being impacted by the transit lots.”

Calgary Transit director Fred Wong told a city committee earlier this week that northwest lots that used to be constantly full were now around 80 per cent full, while lots in the south are now at 60 per cent capacity after being packed when parking was free.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Ca...920/story.html