Free parking in the downtown core for all of December. A hoot of a video to promote the program.

By Staff

December 1, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

It starts today – free parking in the Downtown Core. A freebie from the city – designed to entice shoppers to give the downtown merchants a closer look.

City operated parking lots in the downtown core.

Many feel that the malls offer a better parking deal – that’s not what we are hearing. We had a reader who wrote of driving around for 40 minutes to find a parking spot in one of the malls.

It was Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who championed the free parking initiative. She said “it was something I heard from businesses when I ran in 2010; working with the BDBA (Burlington Downtown Business Association) and the Downtown Parking Committee we delivered on this last term.” Meed Ward sat on both the BDBA and the Parking Committee at the time.

The BDBA loves the program.  They produced s winner of a video – CLICK to see the 36 second flick

Doug Brown doesn’t take quite the same view

“Going into it’s third year, the City’s ‘Free P in December’ kicks off once again tomorrow.  Acting Director of Transportation Vito Tolone says “During the busy holiday season, we hope the promotion will encourage residents and visitors to come downtown and explore, shop and celebrate the holiday season with family and friends.” That is, unless you don’t have a car.

Doug Brown probably has the most encyclopedic knowledge of what Burlington has done with public transit in the past – he just doesn’t agree with what the city is doing to transit these days.

BFAST, said Brown, “has asked previously for data on what ‘Free P in December’ costs the taxpayers of the city in lost parking revenue. The responses have claimed that because parking revenue and expenses are dealt with under a separate silo known as the ‘parking reserve fund’ the cost to taxpayers is $0. We feel this is disingenuous however.

“How many people who might otherwise take transit, walk or bike downtown during the day end up driving their car instead because of the promise of free parking? There is no way to measure most of these, except perhaps the transit fare box, but other factors can influence this as well such as holidays or poor weather. But it is unlikely that there is no impact. Free parking incents people to drive their car, even if they are a short distance away.

This is not what this mall parking lot looks like on the busy weekends.

“We’d also like to see the city publish data on how ‘Free P’ affects the availability of parking in the downtown. Anecdotally we’ve heard that it is much harder to find a parking spot downtown during the month of December. Studies have found that in times of traffic congestion, as much as 30 percent of cars on the road were trying to find a parking spot. This increases local air pollution, and emissions of greenhouse gas emissions even more than would already be the case thanks to the increased number of car journeys taking place.

Brown calls on city transportation and transit staff to work together to develop a strategy to provide free transit trips to and from the downtown from all parts of the city. “This will allow all residents of our city to enjoy our vibrant downtown, not just those who drive”, said Brown.