Comment 110391

By John Neary (registered) | Posted March 22, 2015 at 11:27:25 in reply to Comment 110375

I've been advocating at my own workplace for secure bicycle parking. One of my arguments has been that commuter cyclists (like me) would be willing to pay for it. But that's a different situation, because automobile parking (which is far more expensive to provide than secure bicycle parking) is not free at my workplace. I would have no problem with GO Transit charging $90/year for secure bicycle parking if they also charged a fair market rate for automobile parking.

The fundamental problem with transportation planning in Ontario is that private automobiles are subsidized by public roads, so everything else has to be subsidized in order to keep up. Free parking at GO stations encourages sprawl using a park-and-ride model. There's no incentive to develop or live near the station.

If the 400 series highways all had tolls using a cost-recovery model, then GO Transit could charge for parking without being uncompetitive. That would be sensible public policy: the user would pay for the cost of their own transportation, and we'd incentivize compact development rather than sprawl.

Charging $90 for secure bicycle parking is not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things, but it is a revealing demonstration of the perverse nature of our transportation policy.

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