PARKING METER BONANZA
We look at streets where the City of Vancouver rakes in the most revenue
Vancouver collects about $70 million per year in parking revenue, and West Broadway is by far City Hall’s most profitable street for parking enforcement, according to data obtained by The Province.
In a freedom of information request The Province obtained the city’s raw parking data, showing a total of 653,400 tickets issued from January 2013 to mid-November 2014.
A spreadsheet analysis was conducted to sort the data into a ranking of Vancouver’s top streets and blocks for parking tickets.
On West Broadway 38,941 tickets were issued — representing 57 tickets per day, and six per cent of the total tickets issued in the city.
The total was nearly double the count for Homer Street, the second-most ticketed street in the city. It makes sense the city enforces so many tickets on West Broadway.
The heavily-travelled Broadway corridor is peppered with upscale cafés and boutiques, so expensive metered slots are in high demand and a big source of revenue.
And West Broadway is a considerable source of frustration for planners at City Hall. All across Vancouver the city is making progress on the long-term plan to reduce private vehicle trips by 33 per cent — but car travel is way up on West Broadway.
The Province asked Jerry Dobrovolny, Vancouver’s head of transportation, if planners are trying to squeeze out drivers on West Broadway with aggressive ticketing.
He said West Broadway is the most enforced area in the city, with 10 overlapping parking enforcement routes.
“It’s true that in the city, vehicle traffic is down, but on Broadway it’s been growing dramatically, and the transit is pretty much maxed out,” Dobrovolny said.
“But we don’t design the programs to maximize revenue. We could make a lot more money if we designed our meter pricing and enforcement to maximize revenue.”
Arny Wise — a former Vancouver parking-ticket adjudicator who has sued the city alleging its ticket dispute system is unfairly tilted against citizens — disagrees. He says a number of adjudicators have left since the city started its new parking dispute system in 2011, believing the process is about maximizing revenue.
Wise says look no further than the boss of the department, whose title is “associate director of revenue services and collector of taxes.”
“The pressure was to increase convictions and get more revenue and the emphasis was never on the judicial process,” Wise told The Province. “You can’t have the revenue department running it. It has been called a kangaroo court.”
In the West Broadway area, The Province found the 500-Block 8th Avenue West—which hosts a flagship Whole Foods Market location — is the most-ticketed block in Vancouver. There were 5,181 tickets issued from 2013 through mid-November 2014, an average of 7.5 tickets per day.
“Whole Foods is a tremendously successful retail location, and people aren’t paying the meter, plus it’s on a route where a ton of parking enforcement officers are circling,” Dobrovolny said. Dobrovolny said parking revenue has been trending up yearly, and parking tickets bring in roughly $25 million annually, and parking meters about $40 million each year.
The city brought in $71 million from parking revenue in 2013, according to Vancouver’s most recent Statement of Financial Information.
By comparison, Surrey took in $1.45 million in parking tickets and $1.2 million in meters and lots, for a total of $2.65 million in parking revenue.
Dobrovolny explained Vancouver sets parking on various blocks with “dynamic” measures — meaning meter rates are based on supply and demand, with staff aiming to price a block so that one or two slots are available during business hours.
In the rank of most ticketed streets, Homer Street — in the upscale and densely populated Yaletown area — came second with 22,826 issued tickets, with Howe Street close behind with 21,458 issued tickets. In fourth place was 8th Avenue West, just off of West Broadway, with 21,317 tickets.
Robson Street, in the heart of Vancouver’s downtown shopping district, is the fifth-most ticketed street, with 17,017 tickets issues. The second-most ticketed block in the city, 1000-Robson between Burrard and Thurlow streets, saw 4,296 tickets issued in the period.
Cordova Street West is the sixthmost-ticketed street, and also has the sixth most-ticketed block, the 1000-Block Cordova Street West.
Rounding out the top-10 most ticketed streets are 4th Avenue West in Kitsilano in seventh, and finally three Yaletown area streets: Seymour Street, Hamilton Street and Richards Street.
“The pressure was to increase convictions and get more revenue ...”
— Arny Wise