Parking Not Free But More Being Provided Downtown
October 4, 2005

City staff made clear this morning that there's no such thing as free parking. Nevertheless they recommended free parking on Saturdays in downtown Hamilton in response to pressure from the business and farmers' market stallholders.

"There is no such thing as free parking," staffer Marty Hazell told council's planning committee. "It's either user pay or levy subsidized." He noted that the city parking authority pays for all its operating and capital costs and still generates nearly $900,000 a year for the municipality. "When we start to talk about free parking, any movement in that direction would have some possibly serious financial implications for the taxpayers."

Hazell noted that the city has added 300 meters to downtown streets, allowing it to cut the charges in half to 50 cents an hour. He and Paul Buckle carried out a survey of 45 Canadian and American cities and found only three offered free downtown parking, and most charged more than the hourly rate in Hamilton. Their report cites places where free parking downtown was tried and later abandoned. It also quotes a Brantford city official who said that introducing free parking "made no difference whatsoever" in attempts to revive their downtown.

Hazell also noted that "free parking contradicts the downtown transportation master plan efforts to encourage other modes of transportation" such as public transit use. "There's no quantifiable returns on our investment if we were to go to any type of free parking program. In fact there are a number of disbenefits."

But the staff report recommends free parking be instituted on Saturdays and that one-hour free parking in the York Boulevard parkade be continued as "a cultural services initiative" in support of the farmers' market at least until a marketing study is prepared next year. The arrangement reportedly costs the city about $200,000 a year.

Committee chair Terry Whitehead pointed to the contradiction between the report and the recommendations. "You make it absolutely clear that free parking doesn't work and is actually counterproductive, and then . you say we're going to recommend free parking on Saturdays." Downtown coordinator Ron Marini responded that "there were a number of balances that had to be struck in the preparation of the report".

Whitehead went on to support the Saturday free parking but opposed the parkade extension which was originally put in place in 1997 as part of a deal with Eaton's to continue operating their downtown store. Downtown councillor Bob Bratina took issue with Whitehead. "We have a historic responsibility to the market as a city," said Bratina. "We have to ensure that it goes on and becomes an even greater asset to Hamilton."

The staff recommendations were also supported by other committee members - Murray Ferguson, Sam Merulla, Maria Pearson, Bill Kelly and Mayor Larry Di Ianni. Kelly noted that the Concession Street BIA has refused free parking at Christmas because "they want the turnover, they want people to do their shopping, move and go someplace else and let somebody else come in".

These views are echoed in a recent widely acclaimed book by Donald Shoup on the high cost of free parking. "Drivers circle the block searching for a curb space, and when they find one they occupy it longer than they would if they paid to park," says Shoup. "What makes sense for an individual driver is bad for the community as a whole."

Shoup argues that "when the cost of parking is hidden in the prices of other goods and services, no one can pay less for parking by using less of it. Bundling the cost of parking into higher prices for everything else skews travel choices toward cars and away from public transit, cycling, and walking."

The city staff report on parking can be viewed at
http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/7D65F7CE-5918
-4337-B975-F2856BF16285/0/Oct04PED05019REVISED.pdf.

More information on Donald Shoup's book is available at
http://www.planning.org/bookservice/highcost.htm.