Moving people without cars easier said than done

There’s an old saying” “You can dress up a parkade but you can’t take it to the park.”

Or, at least, there should be. The City might build the most beautiful parkade in the world down at Riverside Park, but it will always be a parkade.

That said, there are reasons to be concerned about it, and reasons that do nothing to help the argument against that particular location.

This week, a group called the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association appeared before council to argue that “more far-sighted solutions are available.”

They’re of the view that we should be talking about alternatives to parkades, instead of about where to put one.

It’s productive to discuss reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and all that, but what this group says amounts to a proposal to significantly cut the number of automobiles in Kamloops.

“Where is the evidence that this parkade is needed?” the submission asked.

That’s a little like denying that climate change exists, when there’s plenty of evidence that it does, backed by the obvious whenever we look out the window and see for ourselves how weather patterns are shifting, radically.

Another parkade is needed, period. In fact, one of the City’s mistakes is thinking in terms of only one parkade when it should be planning for, and acquiring land for, a second.

Ask anyone who works downtown how easy it is to find regular parking, and you will get a pretty clear answer on the need for more of it. In the two existing City parkades alone, there is a waiting list of 150 people. Add the private lots in the downtown core and that number increases substantially.

Another “transparent study” wouldn’t hurt, I suppose, but it would simply confirm the ample evidence that already exists.

Let’s be clear, too, that this is not, or shouldn’t be, a business versus the rest of us disagreement. Yes, downtown businesses need more parking spots for the many employees whose wages they pay.

If those spots aren’t available in parkades, they’re taken from shoppers. A new parkade will free up parking elsewhere, so the end beneficiary is the shopper.

As for turning off the ignition on automobiles and making everybody walk or take the bus or hop a bicycle, it won’t happen. By all means, we should be proving for hikers and bus riders and cyclists but, for various reasons, the automobile is the only practical means of transportation for many.

We can probably somewhat reduce the acceleration of parking needs with a long-term plan, but we can’t arrest or reverse it. So we’re left with the search for places to put a couple of more parkades.

Besides, the case against putting a parkade at Riverside Park doesn’t need the kind of alternative “solution” put forth by the BCSEA. People just don’t want a parkade there because no matter how you package it, it’s an intrusion on their favourite piece of urban green space. I’m on their side.

New sketches by City engineer Dave Trawin show the parkade can be built deeper than originally thought. At the east end it will be only about a foot above the curb; at the west end toward the Fafard bull it will be about eight feet. That’s roughly the height of the ceiling in your house.

Will that make people feel better about it? I don’t know. Concept drawings showing lots of trees and bushes and wide spaces can convince some.

Mayor Peter Milobar and seven of his eight councillors are hoping that will be the case. In the meantime, they don’t seem to have been swayed by the plea for lower greenhouse gas emissions, “social equity” and finding “creative ways” to move people around without cars.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com