The Art of Finding a GO Parking Spot

October 22, 2007 - Starting this week, I will be commuting from Markham because my parents are on vacation in Asia for a month! To make sure the house doesn't burn down while they are away, I volunteered to move back for a few days each week. This also means I will have to commute to work - which should generate a few really interesting stories.

I haven't worked out a specific route that I will take to go to work yet, but with access to the car, I have quite a number of options. So this week, I decided to join thousands of commuters and ride the GO.

I have taken the GO a number of times (though the first time was with B and Jenny way back in January), but I have never actually driven and parked at a station before. So this morning, I drove to Richmond Hill Station and discovered finding a parking spot at a GO station is actually like an art form.

First of all, at a busy station like Richmond Hill, there are more cars than available parking spots. Not everyone will get a spot - but that doesn't mean people won't park their cars anyway. I have never seen more cars parked illegally than at the RH parking lot. There are cars blocking other cars, cars along the access roads, cars parked right by the entrance - maneuvering around these illegally parked cars is more of a sport in itself.

Secondly, getting out of the parking lot should be made into an Olympic sport, because I have never seen anyone dash out of the GO train that quickly. People would actually wait by the doors after Langstaff station and as soon as the train opens its doors at RH, they would RUN to their cars and try to be the first one out of the parking lot. That's fine - except there are also hundreds of other people walking around the parking lot at the same time. These aggressive drivers have obviously never heard of the term "pedestrians" - and dodging these crazy drivers requires new skills that they certainly don't teach you at school.

I might have exaggerated a bit (except for the illegal parking part), but surely, more can be done to make these GO parking lots more people friendly. Perhaps add in a path or two, or maybe even add a sidewalk. I know there isn't enough space as it is and adding these "people-friendly" amenities will only reduce the number of parking spaces available, but still, isn't the safety of GO passengers also a concern?

And can someone please explain to me why the #4 Major Mac bus isn't in sync with GO train arrivals? If we want to really encourage GO train riders to take transit to the station and not drive, shouldn't they do a better job in synchronizing their schedules, so that passengers can just walk from their train to the bus. I know they do that for the "Go Shuttle" routes, but how about including the local buses as part of that as well?