IN floating a plan to jack up fees at the Lower Mainland's park-andrides, TransLink has its heart in the right place, but perhaps not its brain.
The regional transit authority announced this week it was considering introducing fees at some of its 19 parkand-ride lots and increasing the charges at others as a way of encouraging drivers to leave the car at home. The idea is that if it's expensive to leave the car at a bus or SkyTrain station for the day, motorists will be inclined to take transit right from their front doors.
This would be a good plan, if buses and trains really went to peoples' homes.
The fact is park-and-ride users like those on the North Shore are willing transit fans who would no doubt take a bus all the way to work if it were convenient to do so. In many cases, though, their homes are likely too far flung or too inconveniently placed to make mass transport appealing. There is little doubt that a substantial proportion of these people, far from leaving their vehicles at home, would simply stop using the system altogether if it became too expensive to drop the car part way.
There are ways to encourage people to get on the bus, many of which the authorities have already done - higher parking rates downtown, improved bus access at choke points, cheap passes for students - but substantially raising the cost of park-and-rides is not among them.
TransLink says it is studying the issue, and may take these factors into account. It should seriously consider parking this idea - permanently.
