One of the problems with trying to modify other people鈥檚 behaviour is that it almost never works, but that isn鈥檛 stopping the City of Victoria from trying to change the way drivers park downtown.
New recommendations from city staff are designed to entice drivers to use parkades rather than street parking. The measures include both carrots and sticks.
Stick: Charging $1 an hour for on-street parking from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. (It鈥檚 currently free after 6.)
Carrot: Offering free parking in parkades after 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Stick: Charging up to $3 an hour for street parking within three minutes of a parkade.
Carrot: Making the first hour free in parkades, and dropping the hourly rate on more remote streets to as low as $1.
Stick: Getting rid of hundreds of parking permits handed out to Greater Victoria politicians and staff.
Carrot: Allowing cars to park all day on some streets, compared with the current 90-minute limit.
Additional carrots will reduce rates in parkades and move long-term parkers to upper levels.
All those carrots and sticks will have an impact on the city鈥檚 bottom line. Staff estimate that they will bring in an extra $170,000 a year. It鈥檚 not a huge amount, but it鈥檚 enough to have some residents crying: 鈥淭ax grab.鈥�
The greater question is whether it will change behaviour. Bruce Carter, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, says wielding a stick is not the best way to do it.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how a dollar-an-hour fee from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. will be seen as positive,鈥� he said.
It will be an annoyance, but it鈥檚 unlikely to push people into parkades, free or not. It seems more likely that drivers will park near their destination and grudgingly pay the fee, just as people gripe about gasoline prices, but fork over the cash anyway.
This is not about Saanich and Oak Bay residents coming into town and hogging spaces while they go to the opera. It鈥檚 about the increasing number of downtown residents who have cars but nowhere to park them.
As Coun. Shellie Gudgeon said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to change the behaviour of people who live downtown and don鈥檛 have appropriate parking spaces.鈥�
Push those downtown loft-dwellers into the parkades, and it leaves more on-street parking for suburbanites eager to come downtown to spend their money. Planners also want to push restaurant and bar workers鈥� cars off the street and into parkades.
However, the pushing won鈥檛 have much effect unless the city can overcome the perception that parkades are hazardous places at night.
鈥淭urnover鈥� is the city鈥檚 goal when it comes to street parking. Although Carter says his members aren鈥檛 complaining about a turnover problem on Friday and Saturday nights, Gudgeon, who is a downtown restaurateur, insists it is an issue.
The city, which wants to revive downtown by having more people live there, is a victim of its own success. Developers are building and residents are moving. Most of those buildings have fewer parking stalls than suites.
Not all of those new urbanites are dedicated walkers or cyclists. If their buildings don鈥檛 have enough parking spots, they will leave their cars elsewhere.
Councillors, who sent staff off to do some more work on the proposal, are concerned about the perception that the city is only trying to boost its revenue. As Coun. Geoff Young suggested, however, it wouldn鈥檛 be hard to tweak the plan so it鈥檚 revenue-neutral.
The city should act on that suggestion, and then we can see if the plan really does change drivers鈥� behaviour.
