Parking in Waterloo Region

[Coke6pk]

Coke, from your experience in bylaw enforcement,  can you possibly shed some light on why boulevard parking is permitted in ward 5 only? I often see it in other parts of the city,  so I'm guessing that it's enforced on a complaint basis only.

The Activa area was a ticket heaven!  Driveways too small, a roadway too small to accommodate on-street parking on both sides (Hackberry St), by-law loved the neighbourhood!  Residents complained enough to have boulevard parking allowed [which itself is a safety issue, blocking roadway sightlines from neighbouring driveways].

In the rest of the city, it is enforced when officers observe it, not only on complaint.  [We would just drive around looking for boulevards, sidewalks, fire hydrants, NPA's (No Parking Anytime), NSA's (No Stopping Anytime)]  The only by-law enforced by complaint only is the 3 hr by-law, EXCEPT around the hospitals where it was part of a pre-planned route.

Coke

[plam]

I think that using the garage of your suburban home to store your car(s) is just a quaint memory.   Especially in newer developments, the purpose of garages is very clearly to store "stuff".  For some reason, people seem strangely attached to large volumes of "stuff" that they don't actually use.

Garages are good places to put bicycles. Would rather not bring them inside the house and yet there usually aren't good inside parking options.

[tomh009]

I think that using the garage of your suburban home to store your car(s) is just a quaint memory.   Especially in newer developments, the purpose of garages is very clearly to store "stuff".  For some reason, people seem strangely attached to large volumes of "stuff" that they don't actually use.

Quite.  We had a two-car garage, and both cars parked inside, but we were definitely not the norm.  One or two garage bays being used for "stuff" was pretty standard in our old neighbourhood.

Living in an apartment or a condo, you don't have that option, so you really do need to declutter.

[Viewfromthe42]

Still a bit interesting that people will tell the city that the city needs to accommodate their extra cars (either from purchase, or from choosing not to use a carport for cars) on roads for free, but we don't usually see people telling the city that they need to build them extra bedrooms when they buy a tiny 1 or 2 bedroom house and have a child or two or three; usually they figure out that if they want more space, they have to find it themselves, or move.

[danbrotherston]

Still a bit interesting that people will tell the city that the city needs to accommodate their extra cars (either from purchase, or from choosing not to use a carport for cars) on roads for free, but we don't usually see people telling the city that they need to build them extra bedrooms when they buy a tiny 1 or 2 bedroom house and have a child or two or three; usually they figure out that if they want more space, they have to find it themselves, or move.

+1 to this.  You wouldn't ask the city to store an extra fridge for you.

[panamaniac]

Still a bit interesting that people will tell the city that the city needs to accommodate their extra cars (either from purchase, or from choosing not to use a carport for cars) on roads for free, but we don't usually see people telling the city that they need to build them extra bedrooms when they buy a tiny 1 or 2 bedroom house and have a child or two or three; usually they figure out that if they want more space, they have to find it themselves, or move.

+1 to this.  You wouldn't ask the city to store an extra fridge for you.

Some people might if they thought the city might say yes.  Ergo, cars.

[SammyOES2]

Why do we need parks? Just buy bigger back yards! Community Gardens? Buy a bigger back yard! Sewer systems? Get a septic system! Why do people ask the city to hold and process their shit for them????

I mean, you guys are pretty funny. Again, public space is given uses according to the wishes of the majority. If you want to change the usage, make compelling arguments (of which there are many). But there are also lots of places where its totally reasonable to let residents park on the road.

[danbrotherston]

Why do we need parks?  Just buy bigger back yards!  Community Gardens?  Buy a bigger back yard!  Sewer systems?  Get a septic system!  Why do people ask the city to hold and process their shit for them????

I mean, you guys are pretty funny.  Again, public space is given uses according to the wishes of the majority.  If you want to change the usage, make compelling arguments (of which there are many).  But there are also lots of places where its totally reasonable to let residents park on the road.

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here.  I'm not suggesting that we don't have parking, I'm suggesting that one homeowner doesn't have a right to personally monopolize that public space for their exclusive personal use.  It's like, why should I buy a back yard, I'm just going to fence in a part of the park and call it mine.

[SammyOES2]

It's not at all the same as fencing in the yard. It's the same as bringing some chairs and hanging out for awhile. You 'monpolize' that space for some amount of time. When you stop using it, someone else can come and take it.

I'm completely with you when the city is giving out exclusive parking rights to specific parts of the road in front of a home owners house. But I don't think that's what's happening.

[ijmorlan]

This is an area where ideology can only inform, not determine, a reasonable opinion.

Here are two extremes where opposite ideologies are indisputably correct. Most real situations are between these, and require a more nuanced approach.

First, imagine a rural dirt road with low traffic and low speeds. Now imagine I want to stop to eat lunch. It would be absurd to suggest that it is not appropriate for me to pull over and park the car on the right of way while I eat; it would be a pointless imposition on my freedom to do what I want.

Now, imagine a downtown street with tall towers on every side, full of traffic and flanked by sidewalks full of pedestrians. It would be equally absurd to suggest that I have any right at all to take space from everybody else by parking my car, either in a lane of the street or on the sidewalk. If I want parking, I’m going to have to pay for it. Anything else would be an intolerable imposition on everybody else’s use of the land.

To me, the most important difference between these situations is the market value of the parking. In the first case, the value of parking is low. Demand is low because it is a quiet road, and supply is high because parking is possible at almost any point along the road. In the second case, the value of parking is high. Demand is high because anybody could want to park, and supply is low because there isn’t much road close to any specific destination.

When something has low value, it may be reasonable to allow people to take what they want without charge. When something has high value, it rarely is reasonable to do so.

What I wish we could see is more discussion of just exactly when people should just be able to park at the side of the street and when parking should be paid for, and less blind promotion of specific ideologies. I’m especially interested in the relationship between the parking rules, and the design of the road. Really, whether parking is allowed or not should be considered part of the design of the road. If parking is to be allowed on a typical urban or suburban street, the street needs to be wider to include parking lanes. If not, the street should be narrower, unless the intent is to have more traffic lanes. A similar observation applies to speed limits: it’s not appropriate to build a road for 60km/h and then impose a 40km/h limit on it; on the other hand it’s not appropriate to build a road for 60km/h in a location where 40km/h is a better speed given the nature of the location.

[SammyOES2]

ijmorlan, well said.

[danbrotherston]

It's not at all the same as fencing in the yard.  It's the same as bringing some chairs and hanging out for awhile.  You 'monpolize' that space for some amount of time.  When you stop using it, someone else can come and take it.

I'm completely with you when the city is giving out exclusive parking rights to specific parts of the road in front of a home owners house.  But I don't think that's what's happening.

No, you clearly have other storage for your chairs, and won't be using the park as permanent location to store them.  What you're suggesting is that I have family come visit, they park on the road for a little while during their visit, I don't oppose that.

What I'm opposing is you coming to city council and saying, Hey guys, I bought too many chairs to fit in my house, can I use part of the park to store them indefinitely, after all, that part of the park is already used by people to put their chairs when they come for lunch.

I'm not opposing visitor parking, I'm opposing residents storing their personal property, a car, on public property, the street, indefinitely, due to the lack of any other space to put their car.

[embe]

It's not at all the same as fencing in the yard.  It's the same as bringing some chairs and hanging out for awhile.  You 'monpolize' that space for some amount of time.  When you stop using it, someone else can come and take it.

If someone else can come and take it (ie: park their car on the boulevard in front of a driveway) that just seems like a whole other problem. 

Reality is a lot of the houses facing this 'parking crisis' have multiple tenants with vehicles.  So, instead of a 'traditional family' (hope I don't offend anyone here, so lets just say a couple driving age adults, on average), some of these are rental homes where you have 4+ driving age tenants that don't share their car the same way a family would.

[nms]

Longer term, improve transit and housing options, bikeability and walkability and the parking needs go away. It doesn't need to be a massive program, but just a series of smaller events. Anecdotally, some of the UWaterloo lots (A and C) are not at capacity during what would otherwise be peak operating periods. It used to also be simple to find the tenant houses in a neighbourhood by counting the cars, but after the various transit passes plus better intercity bus service was put into place, the need to have a car while going to school diminished.

[Coke6pk]

I remember multiple times receiving complaints about cars "parked in my parking space".  I would think that its in a condo or something, but would arrive at a residential street with a car parked in front of their house.  We would have to chalk it for the 3 hr by-law, but the resident's thought process of it being "their spot" is what makes this dangerous.  When someone thinks the roadway in front of their house belongs to them, the fridge argument makes sense....

Coke