[Long Island Mike]

GO may trim parking in future expansion plans to discourage car use

Nov 07 2012

Read More: http://www.thespec.com/news/local/a...-future-expansion-plans-to-discourage-car-use


Planners at GO Transit are trying to figure out how to provide enough parking at train stations to support ridership growth while convincing people there are better ways to get to the station than driving. About 60 per cent of GO rail riders drive to the station. Twenty-one per cent walk, cycle or take transit and the remainder use kiss and ride or carpool, Joshua Engel-Yan, a senior adviser in strategy, policy and system planning at Metrolinx, told a sustainable transportation conference in Hamilton Tuesday.

- The transit agency has beefed up bike lockups to encourage cycling and works with municipal transit authorities to boost service to stations, said Engel-Yan. It is giving priority parking to carpoolers, too. But the parking crunch continues and is expected to only get worse as the GO system expands. Metrolinx, which operates GO, will produce a parking strategy next spring. GO Transit manages 62,000 parking spaces, making it one of the largest parking operators in North America. Yet 31 of GO's 62 stations are above capacity for parking, said Engel-Yan. That has commuters in some cases parking more than one kilometre from the platform, parking illegally within the GO lots or waiting up to an hour to get out of a lot. “People crowd the doors of the train and literally run across the lot to try to get out quickly,†said transportation consultant Steven Bishop.

- In a customer survey, 30 per cent of GO users who drive to the station would be willing to try a different method to get there and 85 per cent said they would still use GO if parking lots were full. “There is opportunity there to shift people out of their cars.†The Drummond report into provincial finances recommended that GO charge for parking. Right now, only reserved parking comes at a price: $80 a month. There are about 4,000 reserved spots across the system. “Metrolinx is currently looking at best practices elsewhere in terms of revenue tools, including paid parking,†Anne Marie Aikins, manager of media relations for Metrolinx. “Everything is under review but at this time no decisions have been made.†Providing parking is by no means free. Most surface lots — where the cost of each space ranges between $6,000 and $7,000 — can't be expanded. Spots in multi-level parking garages cost $30,000 to $35,000 each and are three and a half times as expensive to maintain ($350 a year per spot).

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MARK: Interesting topic here...How many GO Rail stations with large parking lots are considered "Magnet" stations
so named because they serve a large drive-in market from a wide area or region?

I live near what probably is the best example of a "Magnet" station: Ronkonkoma on the LIRR's Ronkonkoma Branch...

On January 18,1988 the LIRR extended electrification from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma-that was the first day of full service...
The 25th Anniversary is coming up in January 2013 of thru electric service to Penn Station-New York...

The ridership at Ronkonkoma has grown to be the second busiest single LIRR station over time...only Hicksville is busier...

Ronkonkoma is basically surrounded with parking lots and even with space numbers in the thousands more parking is
still needed there...this station draws riders from all over central Suffolk County and eastern Long Island...

Which GO rail stations accomodate the largest numbers of vehicles? I find it interesting that this change
de-emphasizing park-and-ride ridership in favor of other access will be occurring...

Will this change affect GO rail ridership in any way? LI MIKE

 

[M II A II R II K]

Maybe there could be multiple satellite parking lots with free shuttle service to a nearby GO station for better dispersal, or something.

 

[nfitz]

New Niagara train service would mean probably another Hamilton station like the former CNR station or track alignment or addition to allow thru service from the Hamilton GO Centre (the former TH&B station)

They are already tendering the construction of the new station on the CNR line, just west of the where the old station was/is. Full extension to Niagara might well be years away, but extending service to the two new Hamilton stations has been promised by 2015.

 

[ShonTron]

They are already tendering the construction of the new station on the CNR line, just west of the where the old station was/is. Full extension to Niagara might well be years away, but extending service to the two new Hamilton stations has been promised by 2015.

Interestingly, the new GO station is where the original Great Western/Grand Trunk station was. The CNR Station (now the LIUNA Hall) where the GO trains stopped until 1996 replaced the original.

 

[gweed123]

Maybe there could be multiple satellite parking lots with free shuttle service to a nearby GO station for better dispersal, or something.

This would work better IMO once the dedicated bus lanes are in place. Just thinking specifically in Halton along roads like Trafalgar, Appleby, and Brant (those are the 3 that are supposed to get dedicated lanes).

Under that scenario, you could put in parking lots at Dundas and those locations, so that the lots serve both GO traffic and Halton BRT traffic.

I haven't looked at the Durham plan too closely, but I would imagine a similar type of thing would apply there.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I think Durham is only planning curb side lanes down Kingston road / highway 12 from Pickering town centre to downtown Oshawa.

 

[doady]

GO should charge for parking and reduce fares accordingly. It doesn't make sense that people who walk or take transit pay for parking that they don't use. Yeah, GO currently subsidizes local transit connections, but that's 905 only, and of course the co-fare doesn't benefit people who walk to the stations. And of course the co-fare thing is another inconvenience for transit riders, especially those without Presto. Charge for parking and the co-fare can be eliminated also.

 

[rbt]

GO should charge for parking and reduce fares accordingly.

I strongly disagree.

GO should maintain their fares and give a discount to people who do not use parking.

Yes, it's the same numbers but very different wording. The majority of people will feel jilted if they're asked to pay extra for parking but they won't have any issues with others getting a rebate for good behaviour.

Insurance taught me this. The companies that send out a cheque for clean driving records seem to do better than companies that simply charge a lower rate.

 

[Voltz]

I strongly disagree.

GO should maintain their fares and give a discount to people who do not use parking.

Yes, it's the same numbers but very different wording. The majority of people will feel jilted if they're asked to pay extra for parking but they won't have any issues with others getting a rebate for good behaviour.

Insurance taught me this. The companies that send out a cheque for clean driving records seem to do better than companies that simply charge a lower rate.

I would agree except how could this be done? You would have to know who parked and who did not,

Possible way could be to use a presto card for gate access to the parking lots, and anyone who did not tap to enter the parking lot would be charged less for their transit fare.

 

[rbt]

I would agree except how could this be done? You would have to know who parked and who did not,

Possible way could be to use a presto card for gate access to the parking lots, and anyone who did not tap to enter the parking lot would be charged less for their transit fare.

Yeah, a Presto based parking lot gate was what I came up with too. Count it as a the tap-on/tap-off for the train. Folks who tap-on through other means get the rebate.

Since Presto should be open-payment based in the near future, any credit/debit card would work as well for passengers without a Presto specific card.

 

[gweed123]

I would agree except how could this be done? You would have to know who parked and who did not,

Possible way could be to use a presto card for gate access to the parking lots, and anyone who did not tap to enter the parking lot would be charged less for their transit fare.

Yeah, I think the refund model works well for zone fares, but I don't know how well it will do for parking vs not parking.

For example, a lot of GO parking lots do not have separate entrances for the Kiss N Ride and the general parking lots. How do you get the parkers to tap, but the Kiss N Rides to not?

 

[nfitz]

For example, a lot of GO parking lots do not have separate entrances for the Kiss N Ride and the general parking lots. How do you get the parkers to tap, but the Kiss N Rides to not?

Tap in, tap out for locations without separate Kiss N Ride entrances. If you there for less than 30 minutes, it's free.

As development starts around some of the suburban GO centres, you think they have to do this at some point ... because what is stopping anyone parking in there without using GO. Though some of the more prominent nodes now, currently don't have any free parking for GO (Kipling, Kennedy, Hamilton GO Centre, etc.)

 

[Dan416]

I'm fine with the idea of giving a partial refund for not driving to the station. I'd actually consider not driving to the station if that happened. That said, usually I'm pressed for time so I'd drive anyway.

 

[rbt]

Tap in, tap out for locations without separate Kiss N Ride entrances. If you there for less than 30 minutes, it's free.

Combined with a camera at the gates to detect people tapping in/out without a vehicle, this should be sufficient.

 

[gweed123]

Maybe a way to do it is to add license plate numbers and car model fields into the Presto database, and put in 407 ETR-style cameras at the entrances and exits to GO stations. If the driver stays for less than 30 min, no fee is applied. If the driver stays for longer than 30 mins but has a Presto card, they're charged a regular fare (without any discount). If the driver stays for longer than 30 mins, but doesn't have a Presto card, they're given the discount fare, but like the 407, a bill for the parking is sent to the address attached to that plate.

That way, the system is automated, gives incentive for people to switch to Presto, and gives incentive for people to not drive to the station. All in a way that's relatively simple to the user, because it requires no extra action on their part except for adding their vehicle onto their Presto account.

So basically, there would be 4 types of fares:

1 ride fare
1 ride fare plus parking (with parking billed later, perhaps with a video toll fee or something like that to encourage switching to Presto)
Presto fare
Presto fare plus parking

If the change in fare structure is applied at the same time as a rate hike, what can be done is +parking fares are increased by 50¢, and non-parking fares are decreased by 50¢.