It’s no secret that I don’t drive much, and lobby fairly seriously for people to cycle or take transit as much as they can. I’ve long argued that parking in downtown Vancouver was far too cheap and far too plentiful. Until about a year go there was such ample free parking outside the downtown Aquatic Centre (and near the ocean’s shore) that I never had to pay on the rare and inevitably rainy nights that I drove to swim. These spots were eliminated when parking meters were installed.

The rest of downtown still had meters whose cost paled in comparison to Toronto, but apparently things have changed a bit. I was downtown to pick up a friend from Germany and found a spot instead of continuing to loop around the block. You’d think $1 for 10 minutes would be sufficient to discourage people from parking, but the spots were full.

Now that I think about it, I wonder what a ticket costs? It might actually be cheaper to just leave your car here and get a ticket that it would be to pay for parking.

Now if only we started charging downtown residents more for their parking permits, which at $65 per year are ridiculously low in an area where private parking costs quite a bit more. People complain that the buildings don’t have parking spots but that’s sort of the point: if you live in a building that doesn’t provide parking, it’s not up to the rest of the city to subsidize you.

Of course the bigger problem is people who have private parking spots but continue to park on the road because its more convenient.

At least we’re taking steps in the right direction.

Posted by skooter at 3:17 AM This entry is filed under Cycling, Vancouver.
This entry is tagged: Cars, cycling, Environmentalism, Parking