Parking tickets spike after $3 park-and-ride fee introduced

As the city prepares to expand its list of park-and-ride lots charging a fee, hundreds of Calgary transit users have been ticketed for trying to dodge the charge at LRT stations that have already implemented it.

Since Calgary Transit began charging a $3 fee to park in its park-and-ride lots at the Somerset-Bridlewood,Dalhousie andMcKnight-Westwindsstations on March 16, more than 475 parking tickets have been issued.

The Calgary Parking Authority confirmed the $40 tickets were issued to motorists for not paying the daily fee, as well asparking illegally in nearby mall lots and onadjacent residential streets.

The first few days after the fee was introduced saw empty lots at the three stations as motorists filled up free spots at other LRT stations where the charge had not yet been implemented, or left their vehicles in laneways and residential streets.

The spike in ticketsstemmed frommotorists looking for alternatives to paying $3 for park-and-ride, Dale Fraser, head of the Calgary Parking Authority, told the Calgary Herald.

At the Dalhousie station, tickets were issued to:

• 154 people who parked in commercial lots.
• 53 people who parked in controlled residential zones.
• 25 people who parked without paying in the park-and-ride lot.

The Brentwood, Shawnessy and Whitehorn stations are next in line to add the $3 park-and-ride fee by the third week in April.

Free parkingis scheduled to beeliminated at all park-and-ride lots by the end of May.

The fee was instituted to raise estimated $6 million a year for Calgary Transit.