The brave people at the Downtown Victoria Business Association think the city鈥檚 parking problem might be all in your head. With a $10,000 expenditure on an ad campaign, they hope to persuade Victorians that parking downtown isn鈥檛 all that bad.
In fact, that鈥檚 one of the slogans in the campaign: 鈥淗ey, parking in downtown is not that bad.鈥� It鈥檚 not as catchy as classic ad lines such as: 鈥淏londes have more fun鈥� and 鈥淔ollow the birds to Victoria,鈥� although it is accurate. After all, our perception of parking difficulties is all relative.
That鈥檚 the premise of the other slogans in the campaign: 鈥淐hill, we could be in Moose Jaw,鈥� 鈥淧arking in Vancouver can be twice as much鈥� and 鈥淔olks, how bad can parking in paradise be?鈥�
Putting aside the inadvisability of asking a question that invites answers you don鈥檛 want, comparisons might not work out the way you expect. The people in Moose Jaw are steamed about the ads, and phoned city hall to complain. The Moose Jaw posters disappeared Wednesday. If parking costs are related to population, rates in Victoria should be one-seventh of Vancouver鈥檚, not one-half.
All that is meaningless, though, when a Victorian is desperately hunting for a parking spot downtown. He needs a solution to his problem 鈥� now. That鈥檚 where the other parts of the campaign will be more effective: 20,000 parking maps and a web page of all the parking lots in the core.
The association is right that parking here is not as bad as it is in many other cities. And there are lots of reasons to push aside parking fear and head downtown.
That鈥檚 why so many parking spots are full.
