Calgarians living in residential areas near C-train stations are worried the increasing downtown parking costs might mean less parking for them on their streets.
With new downtown parking fee increases implemented this week in and around the downtown core and more coming in trendy areas such as Kensington, some are worried it means more transit riders and less transit parking.
Sabrina Manning lives a few blocks away from the Heritage LRT station and she’s worried more people will park in her area, which will cause more congestion.
“I’ll have to wait for people to pass because the streets are so narrow. It will be so time consuming. I just think it’s not fair because they don’t live there,” Manning said, adding the parking lot is already full as early as 8 a.m.
But others, like 22-year-old law firm employee Angela Larsen, has trouble finding parking at the Brentwood station lots even when she shows up at 7 a.m. before work.
“I work downtown. For awhile, it used to be a bit cheaper but at one point I just realized that it’s just not worth it. Now even at the train they want to make us pay parking.”
Larsen said the transit system should improve if parking prices increase.
“If they are going to make it more difficult for people to get downtown, they should make it easier for people to use public transportation,” she added.
Transit spokesperson Ron Collins said he doesn’t notice too many cars parking on residential streets right now but said they will be monitoring the situation.
“We will be watching closely to see if more people will take transit due to the downturn in the economy but right now it’s speculative, so we will just wait and see,” Collins added.
with files from Alicia Fox and Jennifer Hilliker
