The pandemic and teleworking have had a direct effect on parking revenues in Montreal. Between 2019 and 2020, revenue from paid parking spaces fell by almost half, says the annual report of the Sustainable Mobility Agency, the para-municipal corporation that took over from Stationnement de Montréal last year.
“This is the effect of the pandemic. There was a period of free parking which was granted at the time of confinement and on the occasion of the Holidays to promote the resumption of activities in the city center. But the main issue is the decrease in people who used paid parking spaces during the pandemic [en raison du télétravail] », Admits Laurent Chevrot, director general of the agency.
Thus, in 2020, street parking revenues were limited to $ 33.1 million, compared to $ 60.1 million the previous year. As for off-street parking, they brought in 3.7 million, compared to 6.6 million in 2019.
Laurent Chevrot maintains that during the year 2021, revenues have started to rise again. “We don’t have a crystal ball, but in 2021, we won’t reach the level of 2019, that’s for sure. The agency expects, however, a return to normal during 2022.
New agency, new philosophy
Remember that the City brought parking management back into its fold with the creation of the Sustainable Mobility Agency, which took over from Stationnement de Montréal in January 2020. Rather than being solely dedicated to collecting parking revenues, the agency aims to promote urban mobility in a more global perspective.
Unlike Stationnement de Montréal, which collected parking revenues and paid a fee to the City, the agency only collects these revenues for the City. “It used to be primarily an income management tool. Now, the priority is for it to be a mobility management tool, ”explains Mr. Chevrot. “Parking is the main lever for sustainable mobility. This is what makes it possible to make a modal shift. If there is no constraint on parking, there is no modal shift. “
The agency also inherited the management of the Parking Regulation Enforcement Section (SARS) which previously came under the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). During 2020, some 700,000 tickets were issued, a decrease from previous years which is also attributable to the pandemic, according to Mr. Chevrot. At the time of confinement, the distribution of findings had been suspended, which accentuated this decline. The revenues from the statements of offense are paid directly to the City and do not appear in the report of the agency’s activities.
Modular pricing
The Sustainable Mobility Agency launched several projects in 2020, including that of modular pricing which should be able to come into force in 2022, believes Laurent Chevrot. This system will make it possible to modify the pricing of parking meters according to the use of parking spaces. This system will not ensure that pricing changes in real time if demand increases, as Uber did, but rather establish times of the day when prices would be higher in order to promote the rotation of users and encourage a modal shift and a change in habits.
Laurent Chevrot is not however ready to say that the tariffs could be reduced in the sectors where the demand is less strong. “That’s part of the thinking,” he said, while stressing that this finding could mean that there are too many parking spaces in certain areas.
Automated plate reading
Earlier this year, the agency conducted an automated license plate reading pilot project in Rosemont to determine where motorists are coming from and how long their vehicles remain in a parking spot. “It allows us to have a portrait of mobility in certain areas,” says Mr. Chevrot. The data is anonymized and the agency is not able to identify motorists or determine their movements, he assures. Ultimately, the agency wishes to deploy this system city-wide.
Monitoring parking spaces also remains a major issue. Mr. Chevrot reports that when the City suspended the issuance of tickets during the confinement of April 2020, anarchy quickly set in. “There is no longer anyone who was paying [les parcomètres] even if it was not free and the vehicles did not move at all. In May, the boroughs were unable to clean the streets. Very quickly, we were asked to give back tickets and immediately the streets were cleared. If you want it to work, you really need a good presence, ”says Mr. Chevrot.
Last June, the agency and the City had also undertaken to systematically tow vehicles that were illegally parked in the landing zones reserved for people with reduced mobility, which had an immediate effect in freeing these spaces, maintains Mr. Chevrot.