New Park-n-Ride lot may come to Scotiabank Place

Boy, does this make sense. You know that large spanse of paved land out by Scotiabank Place in Kanata? All the parking lots? Well, according to 580 CFRA, talks are ongoing and an agreement to use some of the lots could be in place as early as September 2011. From the article:

Councillor Shad Qadri originally floated the idea of setting up a parking lot for OC Transpo commuters at the Kanata arena. Hubley says a parking lot would provide "all kinds of new parking spaces overnight," adding the City wouldn't have to buy a field to create a new Park & Ride lot. The Councillor says talks are "going very well" between the City and the Ottawa Senators.

This makes sense for a few reasons, notably taking advantage of space that would otherwise be completely vacant, and saving money by renting the lot rather than purchasing land to build and maintain a giant parking lot. There may be issues, especially on game and event days, but it seems like a step in the right direction.

The potential Scotiabank Place lot would be served by the "optimized" route 96, some routes of which are going to be re-routed to serve Scotiabank Place. It will likely be used by residents of the Mattamy development right on the edge of Kanata and Stittsville, as well as residents from surrounding areas; that might relieve some of the overcrowding at the Eagleson, Terry Fox, and Stittsville park-n-rides.

Park-n-Ride lots are a little controversial in the public transit field, mostly because a) it prevents transit-oriented development because the lot sprawls out so far, and b) it institutes a requirement to drive to your bus, which isn't possible for everyone. But in this instance, I think it's definitely a good idea.