"It’s to open in the fall of 2016 and Phase 1 will have room for 300 or so cars. It will cost $8.3 million. This excludes the $5.7 million for the land. Yes, that makes $14 million, or $47,000 per spot, given away free to the user."The Innovation Park & Ride is expected to open in the late fall of 2016.
Park & Rides are a double-edged sword. They make it easy for suburban commuters (and especially rural or out-of-town residents) who have a car to leave it in the suburbs--thus avoiding downtown parking fees--while still getting to work in a reasonable amount of time, thanks to Ottawa's well-developed Transitway system. This makes the service easier and more convenient for a certain group of riders.
On the other hand, as Egan discusses, they can be very expensive capital projects.
From a system standpoint, though, Park & Ride lots can also undercut OC Transpo's efforts to build a system that offers service within reasonable walking distance of most houses. Express buses are a significantly costly service to offer; it takes a lot of time to deadhead the bus to its starting point, and then have meander through suburban streets, before hitting a Park & Ride, filling up, and heading onto the main Transitway arteries. That time means money, going to the operator's salary as well as fuel and maintenance. Many express buses aren't full by the time they arrive at a Park & Ride lot, but they're usually full when they leave because they offer riders the option to bypass the express route's "local" segment and just hop on for the speedier portion.
This option, it turns out, is very popular, and Ottawa's Park & Ride lots are, in many ways, victims of their own success. The Eagleson Park & Ride, for instance, is regularly above capacity--which is why the Innovation Park & Ride is being planned, and why it's plan includes an optional second phase that would include another 500 spaces on top of the 300 included in Phase 1.
Looking at the issue critically, it seems odd that Ottawa invests such a large amount of money building these lots to make transit service more convenient for those who can drive to it, yet they have given little consideration--aside from a small number of permits sold--to recovering much of that investment. It may be time to examine parking fees for everyone who elects to use the Park & Ride service.
The fee need not be large; a nominal fee of $2 per day would help control the currently off-the-charts popularity of Park & Ride Lots, while also offering some much-needed additional revenues for OC Transpo and without making the service less accessible--those who can't or would rather not pay the parking fee can simply connect with a local bus, or catch an express route nearer their home.
Parking fees for Park & Ride lots would also allow Ottawa to recover money from those who may not otherwise be paying for these services, including commuters and users from communities outside city limits.
Growth of Ottawa's Park & Ride lots is a good sign of the convenience they offer, but it's also an unsustainable. New options need to be considered, and one of those may be charging Park & Ride users.