Parking as policy

Should the Saint John Parking Commission keep parking rates low for the central part of the city?

I was thinking today that providing parking spaces for less than $100 per month encourages people to live away from the city centre and discourages people from using buses or carpools to commute to the uptown.

If parking cost more, people would be more likely to consider living uptown where residential parking rates are low. Alternately, if people lived away from the uptown and parking cost more, they would be more likely to leave their cars at home if parking cost more.

Such a policy shift would have to be done carefully, we wouldn't want companies to move away from the city centre due to high costs of being uptown.