Parking in parkades isn't as popular as the city had originally thought.
In a presentation to council this week, staff talked about the results of public consultation regarding a new downtown parking plan.
Communications consultant Adrian Nieoczym says people don't feel there's a high enough incentive.
"Almost 25% of people who say they work downtown said that they actually primarily park on street, rather than in the surface lot or parkade. And the main reason they cited, was they consider it less expensive to park on-street," he said.
He says to no one's surprise, people are more open to them if they save more money.
"When asked what factors might influence them to use a parking lot or a parkade instead, the top answer was if prices were significantly cheaper than for on-street parking, that would influence them to choose something other than on-street parking," he said.
"And in a question about parkades, more than 50% of respondents indicated that providing financial incentives to choose a parkade would make it a more attractive parking option."
The city is also considering scrapping monthly parkade passes.
Consultant James Donnelly from Urban Systems told council that they want to see people's habits become more spontaneous.
"You've made that investment, you're paying for that parking already, you don't really have a lot of incentives to do something else - to take transit, to walk, or to cycle," he said.
"If you move to paying more by the day, and it was the summer, and you decided that two days a week I can ride the bike, or I'm going to take transit, or I'm going to carpool, you have that incentive to make that choice. Ideally, we'd like people to make the choice that makes sense on a daily basis, as opposed to being locked into any one mode."
Council instructed staff to explore a full slate of different options, and report back on feasability next year.
Over 3200 people took part in the city's online survey on downtown parking.