The Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) has announced their Win Your Own Parking Spot Contest.

Really? A parking spot? Encouraging people to drive downtown? What about encouraging the use of transit, cycling or even (gasp!) walking?

DVBA Mission

“To be a proactive champion for Victoria’s downtown business community, promoting sustainable economic vitality through direct action and advocacy.”

Hmmmm.

Public Transit (not my area of expertise)

One common complaint is that fares are too high and not proportionate to the quality of service. Higher fares = lower ridership = reduced schedule and routes = lower ridership = higher fares.

C’mon DVBA, incentivize transit use!

Cycling (I do this a lot)

In the last five years bike lanes have become more common leading to and in downtown. The lanes usually run along bus routes between traffic and parking. This is kind-of okay, but these streets are traffic heavy and the buses and cars cutting across the bike lane increase danger and degrade the quality of the road. Many lanes stop/start randomly, often multiple car lengths ahead of or after an intersection, and sometimes for whole, busy downtown blocks.

Bike parking has improved somewhat in a small section of the downtown core (I’d say the blocks bordered by Quadra, Government, Fort and Pandora), but with the recent removal of coin-op parking metres the options are greatly reduced. I say “Hurrah!” if you’re lucky enough to find a proper bike rack, but those are few and far between and you’re left with the choice of trees, sign posts, fences and railings.

The Free Parking Spot

I’ve entered this contest. I’ve used a picture of me in front of the Mountain Equipment Co-op bike corral (same as with this post). Golly, gosh, jeez! Do you think I’ll win that free spot? I sure hope they don’t remove my entry because it might not “promote a positive representation of Victoria” (official rules). Find my pic and vote for me!