It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

The Calgary Parking Authority, which appears to be a revenue generating vehicle for City Hall, almost puled the wool over everyone's eyes this week with a pair of moves that has left a bad taste in the mouths of even the city councillors.

Earlier this week, they announced that they would be reducing parking fees at meters and switching to a graduated system, where the shorter your stay, the less your rate per hour. Stay past 30 or 60 minutes and the rate continues to climb. Not a bad idea and this does a tremendous favour for folks running errands who just need to get into the downtown, get on with it and get out in a jiffy.

The bomb they waited to drop however, was that this reduction comes at a price. Higher rates for parking fines and an imminent move toward delaying the night-time hour where parking rates reduce (currently 6pm) and the elimination of free parking on Sundays and holidays. Well, you might as well have said you would be asking people to sacrifice their first born for the reaction that got from everyone - council, the public, downtown businesses. Rightfully so. It seems the parking authority can't afford to lose any of its revenue stream (which feeds City coffers), so they did one small favour while turning the screws elsewhere.

My feeling is that parking revenue shouldn't be considered a guaranteed income for the City. Of the $22.4 million the authority took in in 2008, only $13.5 million went to transit and road maintenance. It's no wonder Calgary has parking rates rivalling cities like New York. But I'm beginning to understand why rates are as high as they are. If transit service into the core was fast and efficient, parking revenue would plummet because it would make more sense to ride the train or bus than to drive and park. But as long as it's infinitely more convenient to drive and park than to ride, parking lots will fill, no matter how expensive. I mean seriously, why would you make your way to the nearest station to ride the train into the downtown for $5 return when you can drive into a heated underground lot after 6pm for $4 in much less than half the time? Depending on when you get to the train station, you might even be on the hook for a $3 parking fee. PASS!

You know, if I was a conspiracy theorist..... They raise the parking rates, then they raise the transit rates, raise the parking some more, add parking fees to transit riders, raise the parking a little bit more..... do you see a pattern here?