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A new OC Transpo park-and-ride opened on the edge of Chapel Hill in Orléans on Oct. 27.

It has 263 parking spots, two of its own traffic lights, a number of those tall emergency call-boxes, sparkling new glass shelters, a covered bicycle stand, handicapped parking and scads of smooth, black asphalt and fresh yellow lines. It cost $8.5 million.

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It has everything you’d want, really, except cars. Well, hardly any. An alert reader tells us that, in the first three weeks, there are usually a couple of dozen cars using the lot, about 10 per cent of capacity. Sure enough, when a reporter stopped by Friday, there were 26 cars in the afternoon. On Monday morning, at about 9:30 a.m., there were 14.

So, $8.5 million for 14 cars. I waited around for 45 minutes on Monday for the next motorist to show up, and finally gave up, half-frozen, just me and an OC crew salting and emptying trash bins.

Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia

Park-and-rides, oddly enough, have been hugely popular in Ottawa’s suburbs. The one on Trim Road, with 1,068 spaces, is full during the week, as is west-end Eagleson, with 1,220 spots, where early-morning competition for parking can be fierce. In total, OC offers more than 9,000 parking spots at 19 sites across the city.