Quote:
Originally Posted by kw5150
Thats why I said it should start at 5 (instead of 6) and be free on Saturdays......
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Old post but this is actually an insanely good idea to vitalize the downtown core.
With most people's work ending at about 5pm the fact that parking is excessively expensive for that hour from the time they leave work until 6 is a major hurdle for downtown restaurants and shopping establishments on a weeknight.
By changing to that single hour earlier for the cheap rate people leaving work can immediately drive somewhere, park cheaply, and go shopping or out to have a bite to eat downtown.
One of the major reasons for the mass exudus that occurs at present is because people whose work ends at 5 are enticed to leave the core and go to a strip mall in the burbs with free parking, a semi-casual restaurant, and some chain retail instead of parking downtown and hitting up a restaurant on Stephens Ave and getting some shopping done in The Core.
I think the city would be VERY smart to rethink the hours for low rate public parking and drop it by an hour, so would places like the Bankers Hall parkade. 5 o'clock makes ALOT of practical sense.