From the Calgary Herald – March 12, 2009

On Monday, commuters at three Calgary C-Train stations will face a nasty new fee. If you park at the end-of-the-line stations (the rest will be converted over the next few months), you’ll now pay an additional $3 per day. For those who need to drive every workday, this means they will be paying an additional $68 per month, including the recent increase to the cost of a monthly pass.

Stop and do the math for a second. We nearly had a tax revolt a few months ago, over a property tax and garbage fee increase of about $8.50 per month for the average home. Transit users who need to drive are now forking out almost eight times more to the city than those who drive to work.

So, we have a council that wants people to take transit, but penalizes those who try to do the right thing.

A few weeks ago, I called charging for park-and-ride probably “the stupidest decision this council has ever made.” I know that this is a pretty long list, given the quality of some of the other decisions lately, but I stand by it. There was simply no good reason to move forward with this.

Indeed, the rationale for this new fee is all over the place. Some aldermen have argued from principle, saying that we need to get people out of their cars and other cities charge for parking, so we should, too. Calgary Transit itself suggests that riders asked for this fee, by saying they wanted clean and safe parking lots. (Imagine the nerve of expecting that your taxes and your fares should already pay for cleanliness and safety!)

None of these arguments holds any water. First, Park and Ride is free in Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Go Transit throughout Ontario, and all but one of Winnipeg’s lots. Vancouver charges at some lots, but not at others, and Toronto does charge. However, in Vancouver and Toronto, the bus networks are much more developed than in Calgary. In Toronto, furthermore, parking is only charged until 3 p. m., and is free on weekends. For many years (though this is changing this spring)a monthly pass also included free parking.

How about Transit’s assertion about security and maintenance? Well, they claim that they’ll raise $6 million per year from the new fee, but their entire budgeted increase for security and cleaning for the entire system–not just the parking lots–this year is well short of $2 million. I am willing to bet that lot users will see no difference whatsoever in their experience.

Let’s assume for a moment that commuters who drive to transit stations aren’t just doing it to be jerks. They live somewhere where the feeder bus service is poor (takes a long time, doesn’t run late at night) or they have to pick up or drop off their kids at day care. They are trying to do the right thing by taking transit for part of their commute. In-stead of saluting them for doing what we want them to do, we make it much harder for them to do so.

In addition, by charging 24 hours a day, seven days a week, council is saying “really, don’t bother taking transit outside of rush hour.” City parking downtown costs only $2 starting at 4 p. m. Who would now take transit to go downtown for a show or out for dinner? Who would take it to a hockey game, especially if there is more than one person in the car?

Let’s be clear here. The new fee is nothing but a cash grab, passed by council with little debate, little rationale and no public input. It’s badly thought-out, and badly implemented.

Most important, it points to a major concern with members of council–they never seem to ask the right kinds of questions. Figuring out other city policies took me about five minutes on the Internet and one phone call. Council, on the other hand, relied on bad information from a department that had its own agenda. A little more critical thinking could go a very long way. Reversing this decision even now would go a long way to showing they are engaging in some.

Nenshi teaches at Mount Royal College’s Bissett School of Business. www.bettercalgary.ca.

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