Free Calgary Transit park-and-ride spots could soon be eliminated
原始发布日期： 2016-05-18 发布者：李方字变大 字变小
City committee gives nod to plan to make stalls 100% reserved, but mayor calls plan a 'terrible idea'
Neil McKendrick, manager of operational transit planning, says the proposed changes could help manage demand for park-and-ride spaces. (CBC) All parking spaces at Calgary Transit park-and-ride lots could soon be reserved spots and come with a fee. City council's transportation committee gave the green light to a proposal Wednesday that would see the city move to monthly reserved parking at all transit lots. The change would still need to be approved by council, as a whole, before taking effect. Neil McKendrick, the city's manager of operational transit planning, said this plan is different from a previous move to charge for spaces in 2008. "It would be much more customer-focused, and much more technology-focused," McKendrick said of the current proposal. "Making the lots 100 per cent reserved I think is a terrible idea and I think that it goes exactly against our goal — especially in a time of declining ridership — which is to encourage people to take transit," Nenshi said earlier in the week. Coun. Shane Keating, however, said the proposal could help make better use of the existing spaces. "You could have a reserved parking lot that is a dollar a month, but what it does is it alleviates the difficulty of someone knowing whether they can get in there and they drive around and try to find a stall because we have many parking lots that are full," he said. McKendrick said there is a lot of demand for the few spaces that exist. "We have 13,000 spaces available for transit customers on LRT," he said. "We have 250,000 daily customers." The committee also asked Calgary Transit to look at charging more for people who live outside the city to park in those lots. Currently, half of the parking spaces are reserved at $85 a month and the rest are free, but there is no guarantee a free spot will be available on a given day. There are about 7,000 people on wait lists for a reserved spot. McKendrick said generating revenue is a priority for the transit system, overall. "Improving the bus services is a huge priority, but right now we don't have the money to do that," he said. Currently, half of the spaces in park-and-ride lots are reserved, at a price of $85 per month. If city council approves the proposal, Calgary Transit will develop a plan to implement the policy and determine how much reserved parking should cost at each station. Here are some stories about the past changes to park-and-ride fees: |
