Parking-lot rage
Commuter tension in Oakville is running high due to a lack of spots; today's rate hike isn't exactly going to smooth things over
DAVE MCGINN
Special to The Globe and Mail
March 15, 2008
It is just after 6 a.m. on Tuesday, with the sun about to rise over an unlikely battlefield. It is a place where fights have erupted, property has been destroyed and tempers have flared. And it is only a matter of time, some believe, before someone is badly injured, or worse.
At the parking lot of the Bronte GO station in Oakville, overcrowding has caused tension levels to rise among commuters, with at least one verbal altercation this winter that saw two commuters yelling at each other over one's decision to park in a laneway.
Domenic Garaci, a 32-year-old web developer, says his car was sideswiped in October because of cars parked in the laneways. Overcrowding, he says, is a daily occurrence.
"People have to meet their trains so they just park anywhere," he says.
Dinesh Patel, a 42-year-old importer, says, "Cars are always parked in the laneways." He has been commuting to Toronto from Oakville for two years now and says that the lot needs more parking spaces.
With a 15-cent GO Transit fare hike expected to come into effect today, which GO estimates will result in $8-million in added fare revenue each year, commuters say the transit authority has failed to provide adequate infrastructure in a town that is experiencing growing pains.
Oakville's population has nearly doubled over the past two decades. In 1986, there were 87,105 residents, according to Statistics Canada. By 2006, the last year for which figures are available, that number had jumped to 161,500.
This has put a strain on GO Transit stations in Oakville. There are almost 1,700 parking spots at the Bronte station, which services more than 2,500 passengers each day, according to GO Transit. Both the Oakville and Clarkson stations each have just over 2,500 spots and serve more than 5,500 passengers daily.
Town councillor Allan Elgar says GO has acquired a three-acre plot of land adjacent to the Bronte station that will see the addition of approximately 600 new parking spots. But even he is not optimistic about the impact the new spots will have.
"That's just a temporary relief.... It's going to get worse because we keep bringing people in and there's nowhere for them to park," says Mr. Elgar.
GO spokesperson Stephanie Sorensen says the companydoes its best to ticket and tow cars that are illegally parked. "It's very important that we regulate parking for traffic and flow efficiently and safely," she says.
As well, there are several alternatives to parking at GO stations, she says. "We also offer a reserved parking program. That's one option for customers who want a guaranteed spot," says Ms. Sorensen. "We have a lot of kiss-'n'-ride programs. We also have a fare integration program with local transit systems, which allows customers to use local transit systems at a discounted fare. We are also starting to build multi-deck parking."
Town councillor Alan Johnston says the 600 new parking spaces at the Bronte station, expected to open by June, will help to reduce overcrowding, but, he adds, "short of forcing people on to the buses, I don't know what we can do, really."
In December, two commuters pushed for and met with Oakville mayor Rob Burton and town councillors Roger Lapworth, Ralph Robertson, Mr. Elgar and Mr. Johnston to discuss the situation.
"I get calls almost every day from constituents saying that they can't find a place to park," says Mr. Lapworth.
Mr. Elgar attributes the problem to changes that the Harris government made to the Development Charges Act, which allows the council of a municipality to impose charges on a developer to pay for increased costs for infrastructure, such as roads and transit, to service the new development.
The 1997 DCA changes meant developers could contribute fewer funds to infrastructure in the areas where building occurred. That has cost Oakville $50-million in lost development charges, he says.
Oakville's mayor, who is also a member of the GO Transit board of directors, declined to give an interview. But earlier this year he discussed the parking situation with a local Oakville paper. "GO knows that it is behind the eight ball," Mr. Burton told the newspaper. "It's working hard, it has a number of problems to deal with, not just this. It has a limited amount of resources so it has to allocate them on a priority basis."
For instance, "One of the things they are now tasked to do is increase the ticket patrol to check for free riders," he said. "That's going to be a diversion of resources."
Commuters hoping to see money from the fare hike go toward new parking lots are sorely out of luck. The hike will see an adult single-ride fare rise from $5.85 to $6, a two-way ride go from $11.70 to $12, and an adult monthly pass rise from $190 to $195. The extra revenue, GO says, is needed to cover rising operating costs, as well as new train and bus services.
Encouraging more people to take the bus was discussed at the December meeting, but Mayor Burton rejected the idea. "There are a lot of people who want us to squeeze you onto the bus by failing to add parking and we're not going that route," he was reported as saying.
Taking the bus, moreover, is not a viable option for many commuters, especially those with young children who need to be dropped off at school or those who need to be home from work in time to take children to after-school activities.
Parking woes at GO stations in Oakville are only bound to increase thanks to a planned development that will see the parking lot at the Oakville station transformed into offices, homes and light industry.
Yet, regardless of what happens to the Oakville GO station, Mr. Elgar says transit infrastructure will always lag behind the continuing rise of Oakville's population.
"The people are coming in [to Oakville] far faster than the parking is going to increase," he says. "We'll never have enough parking to make it much better."
WAITING ON A TRAIN
"It's ridiculous," says Dinesh Patel, one of many GO Transit riders who complain about poor service. The complaints range from inadequate parking at GO stations to crowded and late trains.
A recent report shows GO Transit is failing to live up to its aim of being on time 95 per cent of the time. In December, 2007, trains were on time 86 per cent of the time, compared with 88 per cent in December, 2006. The majority of the delays in December of last year, according to the report, were due to equipment failure, weather or traffic on tracks that GO shares with VIA trains. Patricia Eales, an Oakvillian woman, made headlines earlier this week when she created an online petition for disgruntled GO commuters wanting service improvements. It garnered about 11,000 signatures before she presented it to the GO Transit board yesterday.
Delays and overcrowding cause plenty of headaches for commuters, says Mr. Patel.
"Their slogan is, 'GO get rest,' " he says, pointing out a poster inside the Bronte station. "They should call it, 'GO get stress.' "
Dave McGinn
