... That it costs an average of $475 a month to park your car (presumably downtown) in Calgary? If so, holy crap, how much do you people make?
It was on the local news in Winnipeg in a story about how our downtown parking lots are going to be raised to about $175 per month.
I don't check the price of parking downtown on a weekday. About a decade ago, after the $200+ per month mark, I just figure it's out of my payscale, and I took the bus to work downtown. But yeah, $475 per month on average sounds about right. Some meters downtown costs a dollar for 8 minutes.
In NYC, in mid-town, a couple of blocks from the UN, the rate is about $20 per day (early bird special, meaning you arrive before 10 AM or so), including a generous 17% tip. That's a little over $400 per month. Although the sky's the limit in mo'ly rates if you move a few blocks west, toward center of town. Aren't there discounted lots in Calgary?
20 a day is fine if you're only going into NYC for a day of shopping or whatever. But every day would be insane. Plus you have to pay to get through the tunnel too! My kid rode the train from New Jersey to Penn Station for only a few bucks round trip, and it only took 20 minutes or so. Screw driving or parking in Manhattan.
Public transport is very efficient for vast majority of commuters. But some times, not so much. If it takes 45 minutes to drive vs 90 minutes +++ to combine subway/LIRR, the value of time can make gas + tolls +parking an efficient transaction, particularly if you arrive early and leave late (otherwise rush-hour traffic kills the timing). From Jersey (and points west) you must pay a toll, but from the north and east you can cross to manhattan via one of many free bridges. Applies the same more or less to NJ transit, or Metro North, or the Path (cheapest public transport by far). For me, driving into NYC went from being a waste in the 90s to being the only rational commuting choice this decade. Presently, I don't go into NYC at all, so it's become academic.
Yes, I guess coming in from Long Island/Queens etc. would be a bitch if you had to transfer a lot. So if the bridges are free, maybe I would drive. But since the PATH train (pretty much all Jersey trains near Manhattan) is a straight-shot and lickety-split too, driving woul be slower and more costly. I love riding trains and subways. I may be old, but I can still dream about all the sweeties on the train! And I think human evolution is at it's peak when you consider a Latina in high-heeled boots and form-fitting jeans.
There are some, but Calgary is a very spread out city. Urban sprawl has always been an issue as far back as I can remember. What's more common is people will park their cars at these big parking lots beside subway stations in suburbia, then take the train downtown.
You don't need a car so much in downtown Calgary. The whole place is one giant Habitrail. You can walk from one end to the other without ever going outside.
Haha, you're talking about our +15 system. And yeah, you can do that, if you know where to go. If not, it's like navigating a maze.
Not in a car, no. Is it really so much more expensive to maintain than a 1.6 mile tunnel (or rather, three of them) that run under a mountain?
Are you forgetting that this is one of the most populous regions of the country and that millions of cars go through these tunnels along with being interstate crossings?
For a long time there was only one road link from NJ to NY. It was too long for a bridge. They first built one tunnel then another and finally a bridge.
In some cases (can't speak at all for the tunnels in NY) a bridge would not be economical and interfere too much with traffic. The best example I can think of is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. It allows constant flow of traffic both for cars and the ships that pass over the submerged sections, which serve the area far more adequately than drawbridges ever could. I imagine that the same applies to the tunnels under the river in NY, and you do have to pay to use the CBBT.
