5619 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

Here is something novel.  Have we considered a BC Transit "in pass".  You apply once a year for it, your employer has to sign a form saying you work downtown and you have to present that form at the BCT office annually to get your new pass.  It lets you travel for free into downtown M-F in the morning only on bus routes that go right downtown.

 

You are on your own for your way home.  By then you have arranged a travel buddy from among your workforce to get out to where you parked or to home.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 10 October 2017 - 08:01 AM.

[VicHockeyFan]

Can we use any of this as our next park and ride?  #6 is a frequent route.

 

Under the Thriftys, the Jawl Building or the Telus land.

 

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 10 October 2017 - 08:07 AM.

[Coreyburger]

Can we use any of this as our next park and ride?  #6 is a frequent route.

 

Under the Thriftys, the Jawl Building or the Telus land.

 

screenshot-www.google.ca-2017-10-10-09-04-35-684.png

 

These would also work for a park & (bike) ride similar to the Atkins Rd Park & Ride (which the CRD expanded a few years ago due to demand)

[VicHockeyFan]

Does anyone know if existing park and rides (Juan de Fuca, Helmcken, Sooke, Sidney) are full?  Any room anywhere else for one, using parking already there?  Commonwealth Place?  Tillicum Mall?  Uptown?

 

Why doesn't the DVBA start a "bus pass discount" program?  Maybe on the last day of the month I get a free coffee at these locations, that location can punch your monthly pass after you get your freebie  Or some retailers can offer discounts for monthly pass holders.

 

What can we do to get hospital staff parking out of the Helmcken Park and Ride?  Can we then replace some stalls with bike garages?

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 10 October 2017 - 08:21 AM.

[Cassidy]

To state that maintaining your downtown core as a destination is a balancing act requiring deft thinking on the part of local politicians would be terribly obvious, but there ... I just did it.

 

You can't make something physically inconvenient (no place to park), and make it financially cumbersome at the same time (raising parking rates) ... or folks will simply go elsewhere. It's pretty much common sense.

 

I'm downtown every single workday, and have been for over 30 years, and the entire "downtown" scene has been, and is now somewhat precarious, in that local folks may be getting misled by all the condo construction taking place, and thinking that is going to increase the vibrancy of the downtown core, and fill downtown with active residents with bulging wallets.

 

BUT ... all one has to do is drive through the Humbolt Valley at 9:00pm on any given night, and see that 85%+ of the lights are out in the condos, they're dark, as in nobody home ... and then do that drive a few weeks in a row and realize that nobody is ever home in 85% of those condos, because 85% of the condos are simply vacation homes for two or three weeks a year, they're not potential downtown dwellers shopping, eating, and generally adding vibrancy to downtown core.

 

It takes some pretty creative thinking to maintain a vibrant downtown core, and I'm not sure that kind of thinking exists on the current council, at least such that they would have the foresight to understand that additional parking is desperately required in the downtown core, and that bike lanes, and wishful thinking aren't going to change that anytime soon ... if ever.

 

All we ever hear from this council is how even the current level of parking, cars in general, and gas and gas stations are all terrible, and how bikes are the future of Victoria ... all of which is a load of crap if I've ever heard a load of crap.

[Mike K.]

It’s not like this has suddenly happened. And it’s not like we don’t have space for one (at the arena).

 

My first article on this issue stems back to August of 2015. That's over two years ago now: http://victoria.citi...-by-800-stalls/

[Coreyburger]

Does anyone know if existing park and rides (Juan de Fuca, Helmcken, Sooke, Sidney) are full?  Any room anywhere else for one, using parking already there?  Commonwealth Place?  Tillicum Mall?  Uptown?

 

Why doesn't the DVBA start a "bus pass discount" program?  Maybe on the last day of the month I get a free coffee at these locations, that location can punch your monthly pass after you get your freebie  Or some retailers can offer discounts for monthly pass holders.

 

What can we do to get hospital staff parking out of the Helmcken Park and Ride?  Can we then replace some stalls with bike garages?

 

The GVCC's bike lockers are full at JdF and Langford and we are turning people away who want to ride to the bus. Currently those numbers are fairly small but they could likely be a lot larger if better (bike) parking was available.

[VicHockeyFan]

The GVCC's bike lockers are full at JdF and Langford and we are turning people away who want to ride to the bus. Currently those numbers are fairly small but they could likely be a lot larger if better (bike) parking was available.

 

Thanks, Corey.  Is there no room for more, or no money for more, or... I see they rent at $10/mo.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 10 October 2017 - 09:02 AM.

[Coreyburger]

Thanks, Corey.  Is there no room for more, or no money for more, or... I see they rent at $10/mo.

 

They are owned by BC Transit, GVCC has operated them for at least 20+ years (not sure on exact timelines). We recently met with them to get them expanded but challenge is space and funding

[Citified.ca]

It was just last December that we had estimated the total loss of inventory would hit 1,500 in 2020. Less than a year later we're just a hair below that.

Loss of downtown parking stalls nears 1,500 as surface lots make way for development
http://victoria.citi...or-development/

[Bingo]

SAY GOODBYE           TO PARKING LOTS DOWNTOWN

[todd]

SAY GOODBYE           TO PARKING LOTS DOWNTOWN

Posting from a parking stall?

[moretrain]

I dont quite understand the big deal with parking. Buses exist, are accessible and affordable. Biking is always an option. Carpooling is cool too. If you dont want to go downtown dont. Also, Ironically, we call it downtown, but it is a City unto itself. That means if Victoria proper believes it does not need more parking, the residents of Langford really have no say (taxation thing and all).

 

But, if I am not mistaken, some of the towers currently under construction will have public parking built into them. So in the longer term, there will likely be less of a loss than currently thought... that is unless I am incorrect, then the world will implode anyways.

[spanky123]

^ I don't believe that practically any of the "towers currently under construction" will or do have public parking. Townline, as an example, rents parking spots on a monthly basis to commercial tenants in its buildings but I am not aware that they rent to anyone else.

[Mike K.]

I dont quite understand the big deal with parking. Buses exist, are accessible and affordable. Biking is always an option. Carpooling is cool too. If you dont want to go downtown dont. Also, Ironically, we call it downtown, but it is a City unto itself. That means if Victoria proper believes it does not need more parking, the residents of Langford really have no say (taxation thing and all).

 

But, if I am not mistaken, some of the towers currently under construction will have public parking built into them. So in the longer term, there will likely be less of a loss than currently thought... that is unless I am incorrect, then the world will implode anyways.

 

It's not just the people of Langford who are impacted, it's the residents of the City of Victoria who are impacted through rapidly rising parking rates at their residential buildings and the rising cost of purchasing a home with a parking stall (unless you pay $400k for a 1BR, you need to pad your condo purchase with an additional $35,000 to $45,000 for a stall, and that's if the development has the capacity to sell it to you).

 

Consider that two years ago one could secure an unground parking stall for $75 per month in a residential building in downtown Victoria. Today that same stall is priced between $150 and $200, or $900 to $1,500 more per year. Over the last year in my building the parking fee went from $125/month to $150/month and that's for a resident. Commercial stalls below the building are even costlier.

 

And residential towers contain 100% private parking (Hudson Walk being the exception), not public parking. Some office buildings contain public parking after business hours or they give priority to their tenants if they choose to make parking available during business hours. But the capacity they provide is still very, very small in the grand scheme of things and when it does come online it's during off-peak hours when public parkades are no longer busy.

[Rob Randall]

I thought Townline discussed allowing public parking at their underground lots outside office hours? This would be years ago.

[Mike K.]

There is no hourly parking available at the Hudson complex at this time, only monthly parking. You can, however, park for up to two hours below Hudson Mews when you're shopping at the Victoria Public Market.

[Rob Randall]

^Sorry, I was thinking of Radius, the old office proposal, before Townline bought it and made it residential. 

[nerka]

Capital park will add a handful of public parking spots. 3 hours by day and an overnight rate

[On the Level]

I dont quite understand the big deal with parking. 

 

If you dont want to go downtown dont. 

Except Victoria residents enjoy a taxation subsidy from commercial taxes.  Don't go downtown to a restaurant.  Don't go downtown to shop.  Don't have a doctor or dentist downtown.  You need to reduce Victoria services to only the "city unto itself", reduce revenue accordingly and then either cut off the CoV's addition to spending or raise property taxes to make up the shortfall.