Parking in Waterloo Region

[MidTowner]

This is faulty logic. For example the iXpress is often full during rush hour time. Does that mean price must go up? of course not. It means more buses need to be added to the route. The parking lots in Conestoga Mall are sometimes full the day before Christmas. Does that mean Conestoga Mall needs to start charging for parking? No, since the goal of the mall is to maximize the number of people who go to the mall.

The Kitchener market is no different. Their main metric is to maximize the number of shoppers there. If the garage is full they can do two things: (1) nothing as it is today and let the overflow people deal with it or (2) build more parking.

I have rarely driven to the Kitchener Market, so I'm not personally too aware of the parking situation. I've heard elsewhere that the garage is full. I hear from posters on the board that it is often full, slow to get in and out of, and so on. That means that there is insufficient supply to meet demand at the current price. You're right that one response to this is to increase supply. That would mean in this case expanding a parking garage at significant cost. The other response would be to increase price to reduce demand. I know that, for a lot of people, the answer is always "build more parking." At least sometimes, that's not possible or desireable. Or cost-efficient.

It's funny that you mention the fact that a shopping mall parking lot might be full on one day of the year (I think I've read that it's actually the last Saturday before Christmas that is busiest). Malls are in the habit of designing parking for the peak day, which means that that infrastructure is wasted on the other 364. Maybe they should charge for parking on the busiest days, to avoid the cost of maintaining parking that is not used the vast majority of the time.

I actually do think that the Kitchener Market is different from the Conestoga Mall, though. It's located downtown, not on the periphery. It's well-served by public transit. It is publically-owned. I'm not sure what it's performance metrics include, but I don't think an appropriate policy would be them to pursue free parking at all costs.