kiwi
Well-known member
Good to see traction being made with people finding out about this
|
|
|
Motorcycle Parking Fees Recommended without Notice or Public Consultation
- Thread starter Rob MacLennan
- Start date
Got a paper at Ryerson. Thanks, now I know and will be writing for sure.
Probably the best time to put these at Ryerson is sometime middle of the week around 10. That's usually when I cant find a parking spot with the other bikes.
That's when I did my first pass on the bikes along Bond, yesterday.
Corsair
Well-known member
IMHO councilors wouldn't care directly because we don't offer them enough votes. I'm sure their offices get inundated with crackpot emails about tinfoil-hat-wearing-cat-aliens.
Does anybody have contacts in mainstream media who would be willing to rile up a storm for a story on excessive spending (How much will the project actually cost vs. how much revenue will it actually generate when riders just avoid downtown). Ford was talking about $75k chairs in city hall.
We need media to multiply our voice. Face, if you can get a meeting with Betsy Powell, I'd be willing to show up & try to help.
Does anybody have contacts in mainstream media who would be willing to rile up a storm for a story on excessive spending (How much will the project actually cost vs. how much revenue will it actually generate when riders just avoid downtown). Ford was talking about $75k chairs in city hall.
We need media to multiply our voice. Face, if you can get a meeting with Betsy Powell, I'd be willing to show up & try to help.
Face
Well-known member
I hit both Edward & Elm between Bay & Yonge around 9:30 this morning.
Face
Well-known member
Thanks, I'll follow up with her on Monday.
So far I've only had a brief phone call and a couple e-mails with her. She interviewed 1 lawyer scooter rider for her first piece. Hopefully she'll be looking for more stories to give it a personal touch. I'll PM you if we set up a personal meeting, or if she's looking for riders to interview.
Steve Bond did an opinion piece when this first came out in December 2011. I referenced it for her, so hopefully she'll follow up with him as well.
Face
Well-known member
Text for the notice is on posts 571 & 576. Anyone who can should make some up & flyer where ever they can think of. Better to hit overlap than miss some areas. People may also not be parked there every day.
KarGo, if you've already e-mailed your Councillor, e-mail any other riders that you can think of & get them to e-mail their Councillors as well. If you have any friends in the press, call or e-mail them. Everybody should try their best to get the word out, make sure the Councillors hear about it from as many voices as possible, and get as many people in the Council Chambers with gear & helmets on Oct 8th. That's out best shot at getting Council to direct staff to enter into a public consultation process, where we can then get into the meat if the issue. Without that direction from Council, staff will just go ahead and implement the recommendations in the report without listening to any input from those most affected by this!
Rebelrider1
Well-known member
Just posting the response from my councillor:
The is no plan to charge for motorcycyle parking at this point. The report you heard about was discussed at Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. A summary of that item is available here and there is a link near the bottom which takes you to the full Staff Report. http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2013.PW25.11
In short, the committee adopted the staff recommendations that:
1. City Council request that Transportation Services and the Toronto Parking Authority create designated on-street motorcycle parking spaces on a pilot basis, and maintain the exemption from the requirement to pay until Pay-by-Plate technology can be deployed.
2. City Council maintain the existing exemption for motorcycles from the requirement to pay for overnight parking permits in designated on-street permit parking areas.
The is no plan to charge for motorcycyle parking at this point. The report you heard about was discussed at Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. A summary of that item is available here and there is a link near the bottom which takes you to the full Staff Report. http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2013.PW25.11
In short, the committee adopted the staff recommendations that:
1. City Council request that Transportation Services and the Toronto Parking Authority create designated on-street motorcycle parking spaces on a pilot basis, and maintain the exemption from the requirement to pay until Pay-by-Plate technology can be deployed.
2. City Council maintain the existing exemption for motorcycles from the requirement to pay for overnight parking permits in designated on-street permit parking areas.
Face
Well-known member
Who is your Councillor? They are spouting the party line!
If this recommendation goes through without the additional recommendations for the public consultation that we are asking for, staff will have the mandate to start charging as soon as they technically can (pay-by-plate technology). If you read the report, the first pay-by-plate machines will start being installed in the Spring. So even if they implemented the 300 pilot m/c spaces tomorrow, they would only be free until possibly Spring, depending on where the first machines go. We'll continue to have free parking over the winter! Yeah!
This recommendation assumes that all the reasons why free m/c parking was introduced in 2005, other than pay-&-display ticket theft, are no longer relevant. The public should be consulted on this, and Council should debate it in an open forum before staff simply assume a mandate to charge again based on 1 Councillor's last minute motion. If the recommendations remain unchallenged, the only opportunity to debate this issue would have been back at Committee on September 20th when no notice was given to any of us who requested it back when the motion was first introduced.
Its pretty clear that 300 m/c spaces will fall far short of the real need. Staff have only referred to a reduced rate for those 300 spaces. They don't appear to have considered whether motorcycles will still be allowed to park in regular spaces, and if they are, they don't know how to distinguish between a car & a motorcycle on the pay-by-plate machines provided for car spaces. If we are even allowed to park in those spaces, we will most likely have to pay full fare!
I'd like to start out with a great big THANK YOU for those of you that have taken the time and energy to take this on and help us all out. Very pleased to have recv'd the note on my ride today Lombard/Victoria. I've emailed my Councillor right away, posted my letter on FB, copied my friends, and will see you on Oct 8 at the meeting.
Face
Well-known member
Thanks for joining the forum & being a part of this. Every little bit helps.
Face
Well-known member
Glad to see Councillor Davis supports consultation. Hopefully that means that she will support a motion for consultation once we find a Councillor prepared to move our motion (not much traction from Councillor Matlow's office yet). The thing that she is not acknowledging is that by saying "maintain the exemption from the requirement to pay until Pay-by-Plate technology can be deployed", recommendation 1 is in fact recommending that motorcycles be charged once the technology comes out. If we don't get a solid recommendation for consultation now, there won't be an opportunity for it later as Council will have already approved the principle of charging.
I don't put much stock in the student intern's "further clarification". There is nothing in the staff report, or in my discussion with the author, about the designated spaces "using the space more efficiently". I seriously doubt that the painted lines would park motorcycles closer together than we currently park, or would allow us to park in wider gaps left when cars park inefficiently. That was precisely the reason why they got rid of individual parking space lines when they got rid of individual meters. They realized that cars can actually parallel park much tighter than the City's by-law standard length for a parallel parking space.
The Financial Impact section of the report reads "Requiring motorcycles to pay reduced hourly rates in designated motorcycle parking areas would generate projected revenues in the range of $125,000 to $250,000 per year." Since they didn't assess the impact of reduced hourly rates in non-designated m/c spaces, and since the author appeared to have not considered it when we spoke, I am lead to believe that we will either not be allowed to park in regular spaces, or will be required to pay full fair. As the report speaks to "purchasing and installing Pay-by-Plate machines for these (motorcycle) spaces would cost an additional $175,000, I suspect they are looking at additional machines, just set at different prices, for motorcycle spaces. That would be far less expensive than implementing 1 type of machine throughout the City that let you chose a motorcycle or car rate, and verifies that rate based on the plate number that you enter.
Sorry my question that was clarified is that motorcycles will still be able to park in all normal spots as 300 motorcycle specific spaces does not adequately cover the thousands of bikes in the city.
Also Councillor Davis is on the infrastructure committee.
Also Councillor Davis is on the infrastructure committee.
Face
Well-known member
That's the $100,000 question! I don't think they have the answer, but the way I read it, if we are allowed to park in normal spots, we will pay the same rate as cars.
Rebelrider1
Well-known member
Hay Face - haven't been on for a few days. Janet Davis was my reply too. Well - Jay!
What time frame are peeps to be at City Hall on the 8th. I work close by and want to come over - just need to make arrangments.
Sorry if it's already noted in here - I didn't read back that far.
What time frame are peeps to be at City Hall on the 8th. I work close by and want to come over - just need to make arrangments.
Sorry if it's already noted in here - I didn't read back that far.
Face
Well-known member
Council starts at 9:30 am. Probably be best to be in the gallery a little before.
Rebelrider1
Well-known member
Face
Well-known member
Good News!
Councillor Matlow's office has just advised me that he is willing to support us and move an amendment at City Council requesting additional consultation with the riding community. If you are in his ward http://www.toronto.ca/wardprofiles/pdf/map-ward22.pdf , please e-mail him with a "thank you"! If you are in any other ward, please encourage your Councillor to support his amendment.
Councillor Matlow's office has just advised me that he is willing to support us and move an amendment at City Council requesting additional consultation with the riding community. If you are in his ward http://www.toronto.ca/wardprofiles/pdf/map-ward22.pdf , please e-mail him with a "thank you"! If you are in any other ward, please encourage your Councillor to support his amendment.
|
|
|
|
|