Don Cayo in the Sun tries to negatively spin the drop in parking demand downtown:
The trickle-down impact of the province’s failure to scrap the seven per cent PST on off-street parking when the HST came in, and TransLink’s decision to triple it to 21 per cent seems to be creating unexpected consequences across Vancouver. The upshot, says tax analyst Paul Sullivan, is a 10-20 per cent drop in parking revenues in downtown office buildings, lots and parkades. This, in turn, has triggered a $100-$200 million drop in the assessed value of downtown properties.
You know, Don, maybe that’s an expected consequence – and it’s not just because of the tax. Other factors: better transit, congestion and unreliability of commute-by-car (not downtown but on the suburban arterials), more people living and working downtown, car-sharing and of course the market – the one that determines that land can be used for much better and more profitable purposes than storing cars.
That’s certainly true for surface parking lots, which have practically disappeared in the CBD, but also for parking structures. Here are three parkades, in prime locations, that are or will soon be demolished to be replaced by office buildings:
Georgia and Richards
.
Thurlow and Alberni
.
Granville and Cordova
.
The trend is evident not just in Vancouver but also similar cities such as Melbourne:
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
In Melbourne’s CBD and neighbouring suburbs more apartments are being developed with fewer – or no – car spaces. Instead, inner-city residents are being offered bicycle parking or shared car spaces.
”There is definitely a strong downward trend in the amount of car parking being proposed for inner-city developments,” Yarra mayor Geoff Barbour said. …
Nearly every recent big project in Fitzroy and Richmond sought to cut back the car parks required under the statewide planning system, Cr Barbour said. …
”A higher percentage of people living in the city now don’t actually own a car,” Cr Ong said.
As the population rises and car spaces dry up, people are turning to car-share schemes.
Even in the cradle of plentiful free parking, Southern California!
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2011/12/56_units_and_absolutely_no_parking_at_new_samo_development.php