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In Bond’s mind, an influx of self-driving cars won’t reduce the need for parking.

“It may actually encourage more people to want to drive rather than take transit,” he told the committee. “It’ll actually spike up the parking demand.”

Anything that could reduce the number of people using public transit is a concern for the city. Administrators hope transit usage will grow over the next 30 years from being used by 10 per cent of commuters to 25 per cent as new transit initiatives, including Bus Rapid Transit, are rolled out. If these targets are not met, the city could need closer to 3,400 new parking spots, Bond said.

Shared self-driving cars would certainly decrease demand for parking, but Bond said he suspects most people would own them privately.

Having self-driving cars return home after dropping their owners off downtown isn’t necessarily the best option either; Coun. Darren Hill pointed out this would greatly increase greenhouse gas emissions in the city.

The downtown parking strategy notes that Saskatoon doesn’t have a parking shortage — rather, it has a problem managing its existing parking supply. A large number of spaces in surface lots are reserved 24/7 for downtown office employees, and these sit vacant much of the time. The surface lots could eventually be developed, resulting in fewer parking spots and more demand for parking.

The parking strategy recommends the city invest in multi-level parking garages — which would lose money in the first several years of operation — and that downtown developers be required to either provide parking or pay into a city parking fund.

Councillors expressed concern that such a requirement would encourage developers to build in the suburbs instead of downtown. Bond said that would depend on how much parking was required or how much developers were forced to pay.

The city administration is studying the report and is expected to advise councillors later this year about how to proceed with the recommendations.

ahill@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/MsAndreaHill