What else is new, another tax grab to keep the same service levels for transit and let road degrade. I hit 3-4 huge holes daily due to shoddy workmanship (holes dug in the road and not filled properly)...all of which showed up recently and now they want to tax me even more?
That's like paying someone to break your car...
It is ironic that Vancouver should be 5th in Canada behind Calgary, Edmonton (who are both near double the cost), Toronto, and Montreal.
I suppose there are reasons, like supply and demand Pretty much everyone over the age of 14 going in to Downtown Calgary is driving, and needs a spot.
And because Calgary forumers will likely see this, yes, I know C-Train ridership is extremely high. But seriously, downtown Calgary is not walkable once you're there.
i noticed a lot of empty parking metres last night after 8 pm - it seems the in effect until 10 pm is scaring off parkers? all the free 2 hour spots were all gone though
I believe that the 21% tax will only apply between Jan 1 and Jun 30th, 2010. After July 1, 2010, the HST (12%) will be in place. The 21% parking tax will be eliminated. Translink is expecting the provincial government to make up for the lost revenue. See page 23 of the 2010 Budget and Business Summary
I was choked to recently discover that meter hours apply until 10pm now. If I was heading into Vancouver for dinner at around 7-7:30 it wouldn't be so bad to plug a meter for half an hour or so but there's no way I'd pay for 3 hours of street parking.
Unless all you do is run into McDonalds and scarf down a hamburger, I would say you need at least 2 hours. I guess if you eat alone it may be close to one, but what is the point of going to a nice restaurant to eat alone and hurrying to finish? You might as well stay home and heat up a tv dinner...
I think the biggest problem is that these rates and parking times are uniform across the area. As I've said before it makes no sense to be charging the highest parking rates in the CBD to people after 6pm because there is so much available parking. Pender/Thurlow or Howe/Hastings are pretty dead, why are people paying super high rates there when it is impossible to find parking in Yaletown (even though it's cheaper). Just as it should be more expensive to park in certain areas on the weekends than during weekends. It should be relatively easy to implement this system with all the new automated computer controlled parking systems that are available these days.
I have my own parking spot in the CBD now so I'm not hit as hard as others but it still doesn't make much sense to me.
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Pretty much everyone over the age of 14 going in to Downtown Calgary is driving, and needs a spot.
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