How do we revitalize the downtown? Even at the height of summer Charlottetown has seemed dead this year.
Whistler has closed its downtown to traffic and has set up free car parks on the perimeter. Its downtown is exceptionally vibrant. People walking attract other people. So here is the challenge - can we give up the parking revenue to make downtown Charlottetown a walker's paradise?
Instead we get this - Thanks to the Guardian
New era coming for parking in capital city
By Wayne Thibodeau, The Guardian
Paying to park in Charlottetown’s downtown core is about to undergo a radical change.
The capital city is about to remove over 400 parking meters and replace them with new pay-and-display parking kiosks.
The changes will go into effect starting next month and if successful, it will be the first step in replacing the city’s entire contingent of 800 parking meters.
Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee said the pay-and-display system will save the city money at the end the day and will also improve the look of the downtown as well as make it easier for snow removal.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult to get replacement parts for the meters we have now,” Lee said in an interview with The Guardian.
“This is the way most communities are going.”
Toronto and Surrey, B.C., have already launched the new pay-and-display parking system in parts of their cities.
Beginning early next month, the city of Charlottetown will be constructing parking kiosks on each block in the core of the city.
The kiosk will include a pay station much like what is current in use at the W.A. Murphy Student Centre at UPEI.
Motorists will use coins or credit cards to purchase parking time at the machine.
In return, motorists will receive a slip of paper that will have to be displayed along the front window of their vehicles.
But the new system comes with a cost.
Each pay-and-display machine costs $10,000.
The city has already purchased 34 units from a subsidiary of U.S.-based Coin-O-Matic at a total cost of $340,000. The old silver and grey meters each cost $375.
