City Lax On Employee Parking: BENN
My numbers are a bit dated, but there has been no material change.
More than 2,000 city employees report to work to the two city buildings in Centrepointe.
\The last publicly available numbers from the city (more than a decade ago) acknowledged that about 90 per cent of those employees arrived by personal vehicle. Rough order of magnitude: 1,800. There are about 1,600 parking spaces dedicated to staff and they remain full, even with the less than every day of the week attendance at the office. That translates in to about 200 vehicles being parked off site.
Off site as in in private parking lots (nearby plaza + nearby commercial space + nearby condominium lot), and the various nearby side streets. Bylaw officers cannot be bothered to ticket those who have overstayed their welcome.
OC Transpo’s Baseline Station is about 200 metres away from the doors of 100 Constellation Drive and Ben Franklin Place. The same city that categorically states and will not countenance any challenges to its fundamental assumption that people who live or work within 600 metres of a public transit hub will take transit and that as a result these individuals will not need parking.
When pressed on whether the city has ever polled its Centrepointe-based employees on why they don’t take transit, I was assured by former former College ward councillor Rick Chiarelli that this was not going to happen. Draw your own conclusions was his side comment.
As to the cost of the parking, I recall that when the city decided that they were going to charge for parking, there were grievances filed by the union. The outcome? Not sure, because an open, transparent and accountable form of governance is not something the city even pretends to aspire to.
What to do about it?
The city should increase the monthly parking fee to two times the cost of a monthly transit pass. If that isn’t enough of an incentive, move it up to 3 times.
The city should instruct bylaw officers to patrol local side streets every hour to ensure that city employees move their vehicles that they have parked on side streets a couple of times per day. That minor adjustment will likely pay for itself several times over.
The city should perform an objectively structured questionnaire of its Centrepointe employees to find out why they don’t take transit to work. They may actually learn something useful about how OC Transpo could adapt its services to meet the needs of its riders.
Finally, it is time for both city staff and councillors to stop lying to themselves and the public about how everyone who lives or works near a major transit station will take transit. The facts stand for and by themselves. That assumption is right up there with the Tooth Fairy and the Great Pumpkin.
Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.
For You:
City Workers Get Parking Break: PATTON
Safety First, OC Transpo: WHOPPER WATCH
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Will City employees get a pass on the one minute idling bylaw too?
Fantastic reporting! The screaming by the mayor about commuter access to QED speaks to the fact that it ends at City hall (self serving perhaps?). I am in favour of the approach where the city charges all employees everywhere for parking their car and then distributes these funds towards bus passes and Bike/Scooter/shoe repairs and maintenance. That way it is not a “cash grab”, and employees can take advantage of the funds to their benefit by not driving.
I’m willing to cede on the Tooth Fairy but you can’t convince me on the Great Pumpkin. I saw it on TV…
The thing I’m curious about is the full court press the Mayor has been doing on public servants. He’s crying that the Feds have to return to office to save the downtown, but what about the municipal workers? I’ve heard rumours that they’re in the office two days a month! A month! Surely having the municipal workers back in the office would be setting the proper example no?
Nothing like numbers to draw objective conclusions rather than the subjective mumbo jumbo and guesswork that pours out of city hall. People working at city hall who have computers (all of them) and have access to the data (all of them) should be able to present these facts to Mark Sutcliffe and senior staff. Ron Benn has just provided an illustration of how easy resolving civic issues can be when people take the time to think rather than weep and moan.