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| - First, I'm going to preface this review by stating that regular CT users already KNOW what sucks about Calgary transit (cold weather train breakdowns, the grating "please stand clear of the door," message, bus drivers smirking as they make eye contact and drive by your stop, etc) , so I'm not going to beat a dead horse.
Instead, I'm going to keep this within the context of WHY I'm currently a CT user; why that has changed in the past, and why it (likely) will change in the future.
First, as a point of note, I ONLY use Calgary Transit to commute to my workplace downtown. And I only ride the train.
If I needed to use a feeder bus system, with the multi-legs and transfers, that would be a deal breaker for me. It's too much of an inconvenience, when the alternative is simply driving downtown uninterrupted, in a warm car with tunes, and parking right beside my office.
Trust me, I'm not alone in thinking this way. There is a very real tipping point where riding CT just isn't worth it.
That being said, if you give me the opportunity to drive to a point where I can easily park and board a C-train, with minimal hassle or resistance, I will make the most of that opportunity. I will take the train.
Unfortunately, this is where things have gone sideways for CT through the years.
Here's a little history:
LRT parking used to be free across the board. And the overflow cars, such as around Shawnessy/Bridlewood, parked all over the commercial side streets.
Really, no one cared if there were cars lining the access road around Canadian Tire. It's not residential (BTW, all those overflow cars, which often included myself, equated to mostly PAID transit riders).
Then along came $3 a day parking. Simultaneously, the city re-zoned all the side streets with 3 hour limits... forcing the combined overflow + lot traffic to compete only for the small LRT lot.
Clearly this was a move to force everyone to pay their 3 bucks. But duh! There wasn't room in the lot for everyone!
This was a commuter nightmare for a few reasons. Mostly, you never knew if you'd get a spot in the "official" lot or not. There was never enough stalls.
And two... even driving into the station from a main thoroughfare like Macleod to LOOK for a spot wasted a good 15 minutes, factoring in the lineups at the traffic lights if you were unsuccessful.
Three: lining up to pay for parking at the machines daily? If you were so lucky to grab a spot (early risers only), then this sucked hard in the winter.
All this meant, in the $3-a-day-jammed-lot-world, I--and countless others--were resigned to drive downtown. Which meant paying for gas, vehicle wear and tear, traffic jams, $20 a day DT parking, and polluting the hell out of the environment.
But now?
Reserved parking, baby.
*** THIS HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING! ***
It made me consider CT a viable option again!
Yes, I opted for the $70 a month stall that some people bitch about.
I reserve a spot, and I can say it has alleviated 90% of my transit frustrations. AND saved me a shitload of money. SAVED. ME. MONEY.
Now I can actually plan my schedule ahead of time, and see things unfold according to plan. I pull up to the station, and my spot is always there. I hop the train, and I'm downtown in half an hour. Start to finish, this process is more often than not pain free.
Within the context of how I use transit, with a reserved spot, I can now give CT 4 stars. (I deduct one star for the new train configuration... the standing room only cattle cars, which suck).
Nonetheless, I don't have high hopes for reserved parking being around forever. Someone will kill it, because they don't understand the relevance of my scenario described above.
And on that day, it's back to one star for CT, and I rip them in the re-written review. Me? I resume clogging the streets on my commute downtown. I will feel bad about it, but hey... if I don't have a place to park, then I have no option.
Yelp's 30 Day Challenge 2012 - 8/30
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