Should Hamilton hike public parking prices?

Hamilton will look at hiking public parking rates that are among the cheapest in the province.

A new budget update circulated to councillors says the city’s $1-per-hour metered parking price is the lowest among Ontario cities that take part in a yearly municipal benchmarking survey.

Private parking lot operators in the downtown also generally charge more for a monthly pass than nearby city-owned lots — in one case, $80 more. There are 1,088 people on waiting lists for those public lots — and many have been on the list for two years.

“This is an indication that parking rates in Hamilton may be low,” states the report. “Motorists are willing to wait for parking rather than consider using other modes of transportation.”

Downtown Coun. Jason Farr said he’s in favour of a rate increase, but added he’ll wait until the issue comes up at a Feb. 23 meeting to support a specific option.

He noted a price bump won’t be a slam dunk with downtown businesses, even though a percentage of meter revenue goes to Business Improvement Area groups.

“I’ve talked to (those groups) on more than one occasion about this and the opinions are really all over the place,” he said.

“Some say we should make parking free to try to lure more shoppers downtown.”

“But others say we should be tripling the rates to encourage more people to take alternative modes of transportation,” Farr said.

Transit advocate Ryan McGreal calls downtown parking “way too cheap” and a “disincentive” to would-be bus users.

“I think it should cost more to park than to buy a bus pass. Instead, we have the opposite situation,” said the Raise the Hammer website editor. “Our stated goal as a city is to double transit ridership … Instead, we’re going backwards.”

Right now, a monthly HSR bus pass for an adult is nearly $95. It costs less than that to buy a monthly parking pass at all but two of the city-owned lots or structures downtown.

The majority of those parking passes cost between $40 and $70, but the underground convention centre garage will set you back $125 per month.

Coun. Chad Collins requested the parking information in advance of the Feb. 23 meeting. Collins said he sees no reasons why the city “can’t be competitive” with private lot op- erators and bring in much-needed extra revenue. “It looks like a sellers market, at the moment,” he said.

But Collins added he’d like to hear back formally from BIA groups before making a decision on metered rates.

On the street in other cities, Toronto charges between $1 and $4 per hour, while in Ottawa you pay $2.50. London, Windsor and Burlington charge $1.50, while Thunder Bay is the next cheapest at $1.25. The average street parking rate in Ontario is close to $1.50.

The budget report says the city could bring in nearly $1 million in extra parking revenue if it matched prices with private lots and another $450,000 if it hiked meter rates by 50 cents.

The report doesn’t make recommendations, but instead costs out options like raising downtown lot rates by $5 or $10 a month and hourly meter rates by 25 or 50 cents.

Councillors will hear new details about possible private-public partnerships for new parking structures, as well as the sale potential for underutilized municipal lots, Feb. 23.

A consulting report on Hamilton parking in 2013 showed overall demand had eased in recent years, but also predicted a shortage in the busiest areas of the downtown by 2018.