12-22-2015, 09:31 AM
(12-22-2015, 08:56 AM)ookpik Wrote:(12-22-2015, 08:38 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: The parking lots are not much closer, and having driven to the closest parking lot to Columbia Street, only to have it take 70 minutes to get from turning the car on in the lot to turning it off at King and Bridgeport, there is benefit to be had in dispersing vehicles. If someone wants to spend 70 minutes to drive ~3km, it's indeed their choice. But I'd like to present people with alternatives.+1
If you get a parking space on campus it will take you a long time to exit after the fireworks display. If you park further afield it will take you just as long to walk back to the car.
(We live 3 or 4 km from Columbia Lake a stone's throw from a new LRT station. We've always walked to this event, both ways. It takes us 30 to 40 minutes, mostly along the Laurel Trail. The LRT won't change how we get to this event.)
All that said, this is an event that occurs but once a year. How does it relate in any significant way to LRT ridership?
Events don't often relate to general ridership, but they can be an introduction to the service. Many people drive everywhere, but in Ottawa, with the horrible traffic, they'll park at a park'n'ride and then ride the equivalent of our iXpress downtown to the show. There are buses as far as the eye can see, and for free, after the fireworks, and they're always a lot faster than spending an hour or more trying to get a car out of any walkable parking lot.
When you give people an access point to ION, whether they become a transit user, or buy their kid a GRT pass, or just understand the utility and experience a bit better, all have moved the dial in a positive direction.