Charging more for parking could push more London commuters to public transit and help pay for new downtown parking garages, says a report headed to a city hall committee, with at least one politician saying it’s time drivers paid more.



Still, the information-only report says more study is needed of core parking before any action is taken.



And the head of the downtown merchants’ umbrella group agrees, saying the timing isn’t right.



“Parking is very complex — we need to modernize what we do” said Janette MacDonald, chief executive of Downtown London.



Before raising rates “you have to have a fantastic transit system, and we don’t,” she said.



“I think we need to look at the whole mix of private and public.”



The report headed to the civic works committee Tuesday says London’s downtown city lots have lower rates than other cities, and can stand to be hiked.



That could spur more people to use transit and help fund the construction of more parking garages that drivers prefer, says the report by consultants MMM Group, hired in 2011 to do a parking study for the city.



“It is time we take parking downtown very seriously. We have made parking too cheap — that is what I am reading here,” said Coun. Harold Usher, the committee chairperson.



“People love their cars and one of the things we’ve been trying to do for years is to get people, especially in the downtown, to leave their cars at home and take the bus. We need to take this step.”



MMM Group found London parking rates, from $80 to $110 a month, “are low relative to cities of comparable size, economic activity and parking supply.”



It said other cities average $130 to $185 a month.



“An increase in parking rates could be tolerated by the consumer and may encourage the development of new private parking garages which are the preferred parking of the customer,” the consultants found.



Usher agreed, saying the committee needs to have the discussion but the report is to be received for information only.



“I am in favour of that, of increasing the cost of parking. I think we need to do whatever we can to encourage people to take transit,” he said.



Usher would like to see rates rise by 20 per cent, meaning starting rates would be more than $100 a month.



At $81, a monthly transit pass is comparable in price to a month of parking and “an increase in the monthly parking rates may be needed to shift more people to transit,” MMM Group said.



But MacDonald said the committee should do nothing until another study on parking that the city has begun, is complete. She’s “concerned” the MMM study is four years old and has been overtaken, adding the committee should wait for the current study to be completed in 2016.



“We need to look at more than just rates — but at competitiveness, at technology, at building more garages. I think we should look at everything,” she said.



MMM Group was hired in 2011 but its findings were put on hold pending results of the city’s Downtown Master Plan and Transportation Master Pan.



Earlier this year, the city finalized its Downtown London Parking Utilization Study that proposed a parking strategy for 10 years.



But despite the four studies completed, the report to the city committee said still more needs to be done. “A long-term strategy that ties the planning and development objectives was not completed and will be the subject of a more comprehensive assessment that ties the Rapid Transit initiative, the Transportation Master Plan and the London Downtown Plan objectives together,” it stated.



The process for hiring another consultant, to report back in the summer of 2016, has begun.