Fewer cars, more bikes affect revenue in Vancouver number

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Fewer cars, more bikes affect revenue in Vancouver
Parking income expected to be $1.99 million below budget, but drop in police costs help


The City of Vancouver’s pocketbook has taken a hit because fewer people are driving downtown and paying for on-street parking.

The city’s first-quarter budget report shows that meter parking enforcement revenues are projected to be $1.99 million below budget for 2011, “possibly indicating an overall decrease in vehicles parking downtown.”

The number of people driving downtown has been on a steady decline for the past decade, and the popularity of the Canada Line, the high price of gas and increased parking costs are contributing factors, said Jerry Dobrovolny, director of transportation for the city.

“It’s good news that over the past 10 years we’ve had a continual reduction in the number of cars coming into the city, and at the same time we’ve had dramatic increases in walking, cycling and transit,” Dobrovolny said. “The difficulty here is that our estimate of revenues was three per cent higher than what the actual [revenue] is trending today.”

The number of trips going downtown has increased at the same time as the number of cars going downtown has decreased as much as 25 per cent in the past 10 years.

Rates for on-street parking went up in January 2011, with the highest price rising from $5 an hour to $6 an hour. Dobrovolny said parking rates are not budget-driven, but rather are based on the city’s transportation system and plan. On-street parking rates are always set higher than off-street parking to encourage more turnover in the on-street spots, he said.

Although parking isn’t quite meeting its revenue targets, it has still increased about 12 per cent over 2010, which is $7 million higher year over year. Dobrovolny said parking is somewhat seasonal, and revenues may catch up over the next nine months.

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The city has 9,000 pay parking spaces on the streets, with about 5,000 of those downtown. Most meters are in effect from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, except where there are rush hour regulations. Most meters have a two-hour time limit, while some allow three hours of parking.

The new bike lanes downtown eliminated about 200 on-street parking spots, which Dobrovolny said is too few to have a major effect.

“We’ve had one of the coldest springs on record, but we’ve seen a continued, dramatic increase in use of the Hornby bike lane month over month,” Dobrovolny said.

The same budget report shows Vancouver police officers’ salaries and benefits expenses are projected to come in under budget by about $820,000 “mainly due to a higher number of retirements than expected.”

The Vancouver Sun has previously reported that Canada is facing a police shortage in the coming decade, due to a large number of retiring officers.

A 2008 report to the Vancouver police board shows that the VPD usually sees 40 or 45 police retirements each year, but it anticipated that twice as many might retire after the 2010 Olympics.

A call to the VPD to discuss recruitment and retirement of police officers was not returned by press time Friday.

Service and inspection fees are projected to be $2.86 million more than expected, due to the economic rebound.

“After the global economic decline that began in 2008, the development market showed significant signs of improvement throughout 2010,” the report states, adding that this trend is expected to continue through 2011.

Higher-than-anticipated business licence fees are also contributing to the revenue side, with an extra $1.15 million projected.

Overall, the city is projecting a break-even year, with the possibility of a $900,000 surplus based on first quarter results.

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Meter maintenance technician Stacy Sinclair checks the solar-powered parking meters on Granville Street. Downtown parking revenue in the city fell short of estimates in the first part of the year