Charlottetown park-and-ride program stalls

A park-and-ride program aimed at giving drivers a cheaper alternative to parking in downtown Charlottetown is not proving very popular.

• Charlottetown park-and-ride program launched

The program, running for a month now, has seen just a handful of drivers pay $50 a month to park at the Charlottetown Event grounds on Grafton Street and catch a bus downtown.

"We realize that there is a certain resistance to parking out of the downtown," said Ron Waite, the general manager of the Charlottetown Area Development Corp.

CADC, which owns the 450-space parking lot, partnered with Charlottetown's T3 Transit company in the venture.

Both groups thought with downtown parkade prices now over $100 a month, park-and-ride would be an attractive alternative.

"People like to park very close to where they're going, but when it was at half the price, we had expected a little better uptake than this," Waite told CBC reporter Steve Bruce.

Plan to continue

CADC and T3 are not losing any money, they said, and have no plans to scrap the service.

"We drive by Grafton Street East a number of times each day. So to put another stop into its schedule was not difficult," said T3 Transit owner Mike Cassidy.

The parking lot is otherwise vacant, noted Waite.

"Maybe over time, the take rate will come up on it," he said. "The parking can't be that bad downtown.I guess that's the good news side of it."

CADC plans to take a harder look at its numbers this fall to decide whether it's worth paying for snow-clearing to keep the service running during the winter.

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