Parking in Waterloo Region

[mpd618]

The Kitchener market is no different. Their main metric is to maximize the number of shoppers there. If the garage is full they can do two things: (1) nothing as it is today and let the overflow people deal with it or (2) build more parking.

I go to the market every so often and I find (1) quite reasonable. About half the time I get free parking in the building, the rest I pay at any of the paid parking lots nearby or park on the street.

Or they can charge just enough for the garage parking so that everyone who wants to get parking in the garage can always do so and not need to circle or get stuck in the associated traffic. There's plenty of parking in the vicinity, notably at Market Square as well as on street. The problem is that there is a relatively small amount of premium parking that is given away for free.

As for transit not being viable due to snow, I'd think parking demand should be lower at the market in the winter anyway, so there's less need to shift the balance to other modes.

[ookpik]

<SARCASM>
My modest solution:



</SARCASM>

[schooner77]

Put a lawn mower engine on that, and I think you have the inspiration for some retirement income.

[panamaniac]

Reading all the sidewalk comments over the last couple of days has left me wondering how our parents and grandparents ever survived, taking their lives into their hands every time they walked in winter! My respect for the earlier generations is greater than ever!

[BuildingScout]

Reading all the sidewalk comments over the last couple of days has left me wondering how our parents and grandparents ever survived, taking their lives into their hands every time they walked in winter!  My respect for the earlier generations is greater than ever!

I don't know about yours, but my grandparents in Ohio couldn't leave the house for a month every winter.

[panamaniac]

Reading all the sidewalk comments over the last couple of days has left me wondering how our parents and grandparents ever survived, taking their lives into their hands every time they walked in winter!  My respect for the earlier generations is greater than ever!

I don't know about yours, but my grandparents in Ohio couldn't leave the house for a month every winter.

Mine (and my parents, who did not own a car until the 1970s) walked everywhere in winter.  I remember my Mom telling me that she occasionally walked from home (near Rockway Golf Course) to Central Meat Market in winter.  Of course we have short legs and a low centre of gravity in my family, so the risk of falling was probably less. 

[ookpik]

I recall walking from University & Marsland to KCI and back every day in the 1960s. No it wasn't uphill in both directions but I do recall we used to get a lot more snow than is typical today. Residents for the most part cleared their sidewalks but like today there were quite a few who didn't.

As a teenager it wasn't a problem. But it does get harder as one gets older. And for those of any age who have mobility challenges it's always been substantially more difficult to get around in winter. As I've said before it takes just one person who doesn't clear their segment of the sidewalk to make the entire route impassable.

[rangersfan]

Has anyone heard anything about the Charles St parking garage alluded to in this 2011 article?
http://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news/parking...sing-fast/

[Markster]

I assume you mean the one they reference for Charles and Water, not the Charles and Benton one that's prominently featured?

I have heard nothing on the matter.

[MidTowner]

It's mentioned several times in the City of Kitchener's Long-Term Parking Strategy: http://www.kitchener.ca/en/livinginkitch...gy2011.pdf
There's nothing concrete there, just that it has been identified as a need, and partners would need to be found.

It is also mentioned in this article: http://metronews.ca/news/kitchener/45376...o-provide/ There, it claims the garage is forecast to cost $20,000,000.

[panamaniac]

I wonder what the prospects might be for the City to work with a developer to build underground parking at that site, or at least to incorporate development above a parking podium? Using that land for just another above ground parking structure seems less than ideal, imho.

[Canard]

ByLaw Question...

So this morning I come out to find a ticket on my car - $20, saying that I violated the parking ByLaw for leaving my car parked for more than 3 hours.  Zuh?  People park on my street all the time overnight and for days at a time.  A quick search online confirms that yea, you can't park anywhere in Kitchener for more than 3 hours unless posted otherwise!  I'll have to have a chat with my neighbours about this.

https://www.kitchener.ca/en/livinginkitc...ations.asp

How the heck does this 3 hour thing jive with the "No Overnight Parking from Dec. to March" then?  This 3 hour rule thing means you can never park overnight, doesn't it?

[timio]

I believe it's complaint-only enforcement for the most part, but I have seen the occasional bylaw officer walking down residential streets marking tires with chalk. The winter overnight rule over-rides the bylaw, as does the snow event rule of no parking for 24 hours on any street until the event is declared over.

[Canard]

Right, but what I'm getting at is that I read the overnight rule as "You can't park overnight between December and March". So after march it's OK to park overnight.

But then this other rule says you can't park longer than 3 hours - so which is it?

It'll be fun if it was one of my neighbours. The issue is that my driveway is extremely narrow, and one of them always parks their two giant minivans RIGHT opposite my driveway (instead of in their own driveway!), making it impossible to get my car out without driving over the curb. So I typically try and park on the street whenever I can, so I can actually get to my car in the morning! I wonder if they called it in. This is going to escalate rather quickly if that was the case.

[ookpik]

Right, but what I'm getting at is that I read the overnight rule as "You can't park overnight between December and March".  So after march it's OK to park overnight.

But then this other rule says you can't park longer than 3 hours - so which is it?

There are two bylaws that overlap. Your link summarizes them as:
1. No vehicle is permitted to park for more than three consecutive hours on any city street 
2. Vehicles are not permitted to park on city streets from 2:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. from Dec. 1 to March 31.

So
a) you're free to park your car "overnight" between April and November providing the duration is no more than 3 hours 
b) you're free to park your car between December and March for up to 3 hours providing none of that period is between 2:30 a.m. to 6 a.m.
[c) subject to any other bylaw that applies, e.g. the others in the link,  no parking within a certain distance of a driveway, fire hydrant, etc.]