CELPIP Reading Part 4 Practice Test: Ending Free Parking in Downtown Ashcombe Debate

Ashcombe’s downtown has offered complimentary on-street parking for as long as anyone remembers. Councillor Sandra Whitlock now advocates pay stations along the four busiest blocks of Main and Water streets, charging $2 hourly between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday.

Whitlock contends that free parking has become a casualty of its popularity. A municipal count last summer found most Main Street spaces monopolized by the same vehicles for six hours or longer, frequently belonging to downtown employees. By her calculation, “A space that turns over hourly serves nine customers a day. One occupied all day serves one.” The projected $350,000 in annual revenue would be dedicated, she promises, to sidewalk repairs, lighting and benches in the core.

Tony Ferraro, whose family has operated a Water Street hardware store for three generations, shares her exasperation with all-day parkers but disputes the remedy. “The highway retailers have acres of free parking,” he observes, “and customers asked to pay will migrate straight there.” He would prefer properly enforced two-hour limits, accompanied by a free employee lot at the periphery of the business district.

“Free parking isn’t really free,” counters Mei-Ling Cho, a transportation planner who has advised several regional municipalities. Every taxpayer subsidizes its construction and maintenance, including pedestrians and transit users. In her experience, a modest charge keeps spaces available more dependably than time limits, which are only as good as the officers patrolling them. Nevertheless, she recommends reviewing the price after the first year, and doubts merchants will acquiesce unless revenue is visibly spent outside their doors.

Gordon Pryce, a retired bus driver who uses a walker, treats the debate as one of accessibility. Driving downtown twice weekly for appointments, he fears that pay stations would prove awkward to reach, particularly in winter. “I don’t mind paying, as long as accessible spaces stay free and machines accept coins as well as cards.”

Whitlock responds that the stations would accept coins, cards and a phone app, with accessible-permit holders parking free. Ferraro remains skeptical: “Once the meters go in, they never come out.” Mayor Doug Tremblay has reserved judgment.

I shop downtown three times a week, and I tire of hearing that parking charges will somehow rescue its businesses. At $2 an hour, retirees on fixed incomes feel every errand. Councillor Whitlock’s own figures show that the culprit is 6. Choose…a shortage of benches and lightingtoo few spaces for permit holdersshoppers lingering in storesemployees parking there all day, so why penalize everyone else? Mr. Ferraro’s idea of 7. Choose…free parking for permit holdersa free staff lota phone app for payinga fund for sidewalk repairs addresses those drivers directly.

Ms. Cho’s objection to time limits falls flat with me: a town with money for pay stations can surely find it for 8. Choose…someone to check carsa free employee lotbetter sidewalks downtowncoin machines for older drivers. Nor am I reassured that she 9. Choose…would peg the price for goodwould tie the price to sidewalkswould revisit the price laterwould waive it for permit holders; I know how that usually ends.

I also fear, as Mr. Ferraro predicts, that families will simply 10. Choose…start taking the bususe the employee lotpay through the phone apphead for the highway, and they won’t return. Try time limits for a year first.