Parking in Waterloo Region

[MidTowner]

Neat, thanks! No rules after December 23!

[danbrotherston]

One thing I never knew that was discussed in the committee was that bylaw does not enforce parking regulations over "the holidays" (they didn't defined what that meant, but I guess the week or so defined by Christmas and New Year's).

This is solely because governments come to the people every few years to get elected.  It looks bad if you are ticketing at Christmas.  Enforcement slows down in stages leading up to and after Christmas/New Years.  3 hr limits / overnights go first, the rest disappear with zero enforcement (except Disabled/Fire Route/Priv Propery requests) Dec 23ish on.  

Politian's fear of complaints is the reason for this.  Kind of a localized version of The Purge!

Coke

Are you suggesting there is any pro-active bylaw enforcement overnight?  I'd have bet money that the only way to get a ticket overnight was for someone to complain...when I moved to my house, after months of the same cars parked on my street 24/7, I called to complain, they started ticketing, and eventually cars started moving, two vehicles (yes TWO) had to be towed away as they would not start...so you can imagine my disbelief that enforcement is ever done.

Over Christmas, I'd expect I'd literally have to block a firetruck from an actual fire to get a ticket...at this point, I basically consider bylaw enforcement to not be a thing.

[Coke6pk]

There is a giant city map in the office. You pick a section of the city and pro-actively enforce it. Normally there are at least three cars on the road doing a separate section. At the end of the night you mark off the area you completed, and put the date. The next evening, you pick a new spot, and this continues until you start repeating sections. Area of known concern are targeted, complaints are also dealt with in addition to the selected areas. Realistically, if a car was left on the street overnight, it would be tagged "around" every four days (assuming there is no complaint).


Was it a new build you moved into? There is a period from roads being unassumed to city control where enforcement is lax as an "education"... I'd be surprised if other "established" neighbourhoods were ignored.

Coke

[danbrotherston]

There is a giant city map in the office.  You pick a section of the city and pro-actively enforce it.  Normally there are at least three cars on the road doing a separate section.  At the end of the night you mark off the area you completed, and put the date.  The next evening, you pick a new spot, and this continues until you start repeating sections.  Area of known concern are targeted, complaints are also dealt with in addition to the selected areas.  Realistically, if a car was left on the street overnight, it would be tagged "around" every four days (assuming there is no complaint).


Was it a new build you moved into?  There is a period from roads being unassumed to city control where enforcement is lax as an "education"... I'd be surprised if other "established" neighbourhoods were ignored.

Coke

My house was 100 years old .

No idea, like I said, this surprises me very much, I have given up calling in bike lane and sidewalk parking complaints, because my impression is that they are never enforced anyway.

My real wakeup call was calling in bushes overgrowing the sidewalk and forcing people to walk on the street on Victoria St., took me 6 weeks and four phone calls to get the city to enforce it.

I do feel bad for officers who I'm sure feel they are doing a public service, when the public feels this way about what they do, well, it can't be good.

[MidTowner]

My house was 100 years old .

No idea, like I said, this surprises me very much, I have given up calling in bike lane and sidewalk parking complaints, because my impression is that they are never enforced anyway.

My real wakeup call was calling in bushes overgrowing the sidewalk and forcing people to walk on the street on Victoria St., took me 6 weeks and four phone calls to get the city to enforce it.

I do feel bad for officers who I'm sure feel they are doing a public service, when the public feels this way about what they do, well, it can't be good.

I'm sorry to hear that. I call in when I'm blocked from passing down the sidewalk by a parked car- I know for sure of only two occasions when a car was ticketed, but I still usually call and I took heart knowing that I wasn't the only person doing it.

[Rainrider22]

I'm sorry to hear that. I call in when I'm blocked from passing down the sidewalk by a parked car- I know for sure of only two occasions when a car was ticketed, but I still usually call and I took heart knowing that I wasn't the only person doing it.

You should have seen the face on this driver when I encountered the same thing (car stopped over the sidewalk)   I opened the rear door and shuffled across the back seat and out the other door !!! lol  priceless...

[Coke6pk]

As I was leaving the Breslau airport, there is a pedestrian path (marked) that a car had parked along.  I made sure I walked really close to the side of the car to make a point, and my backpack slung over my shoulder dragged along his passenger side windows, and then unfortunately folded his side mirror forward.  I kept walking as if nothing happened, and he jumped out of his car to scream at what an a**hole I was.  I just turned and said, "Oh sorry, your car was parked on my laneway and I was just trying to squeeze thru... maybe you could use the parking lot like everyone else."  He continued to curse me out, then looked to a family arriving for sympathy as they were struggling with a luggage cart to get around his car....


Coke

[Rainrider22]

As I was leaving the Breslau airport, there is a pedestrian path (marked) that a car had parked along.  I made sure I walked really close to the side of the car to make a point, and my backpack slung over my shoulder dragged along his passenger side windows, and then unfortunately folded his side mirror forward.  I kept walking as if nothing happened, and he jumped out of his car to scream at what an a**hole I was.  I just turned and said, "Oh sorry, your car was parked on my laneway and I was just trying to squeeze thru... maybe you could use the parking lot like everyone else."  He continued to curse me out, then looked to a family arriving for sympathy as they were struggling with a luggage cart to get around his car....


Coke

Thats great !!  not that I would advocate for people to do what you did, or what I did.  You never know what people will do these days !!

[cherrypark]

I was having a discussion with a friend about the amount of downtown land used for surface parking and the relative accessibility of lots for people driving to downtown, but found that there wasn't really much between city maps and otherwise that captured the minimal real impact that the cycling network is going to have on losing parking. The discussion sparked by the Luisa D'Amato article attempting to David v. Goliath the church adjacent parking on Duke and Big Bike Lane™ - everyone's favourite threat to driving, (free) parking, and cause of all congestion woes.

In case someone else would find it interesting to see/use, here was a rough crack at highlighting all the parking area in downtown. Plenty was missed in aggregate with the smaller lots and nooks too.

   

[danbrotherston]

Man, there is a lot o parking downtown.

I remember seeing how much there was looking out my window and always being frustrated, but a map makes it even more apparent. Of course, there's a lot missing lol.

And to think a major city strategy is *STILL* to build another parking garage in the next decade or so.

[cherrypark]

I've wondered if there was something the city could do to compel developers building over zoning to add additional garage space in order for them to at least incrementally replace the city's surface capacity and give the chance to convert that land in to park space or civic amenities. Not that larger podium garages are a particularly good downstream impact of that, however.

Building another garage is in the capital projects budget, if I recall. It is such an enormous sink of capital, locks up city lands, and still suffers as the other garages do from centralizing the parking capacity to one spot, vs. more distributed for people trying to get close to a destination.

Hopefully at least some the largest offenders here get on the track to redevelopment soon. A bit disappointed the U. Waterloo plans for the "Innovation Arena" don't yet seem to consider doing something more than parking with that enormous swath of gravel and existing lot. And the sooner that Manulife parking gets redeveloped the better. It and the Sun Life one in midtown are in tight competition for the biggest waste of space.

[nms]

Given that some developers (looking at you, 8 Queen) have decided that it is more cost effective to compel new owners to rent parking space elsewhere rather than build parking in their own developments, I don't think that it will be any easy sell to encourage them to build more parking. You *might* be able able to convince a developer to build on a public lot with a condition that the City funds the parking garage component while the developer stacks a condo tower one top. I could imagine that a developer might suggest that in this scenario, they should not be on the hook for building a parking garage, since their tenants can simply rent the parking spaces in the public garage.

As for UWaterloo's lack of a parking structure, I doubt that there is any kind of funding available for a parking structure within their current funding model. Ontario Government funding is typically tied to new buildings, not basic infrastructure or maintenance.

I guess returning to the 1970s one-way Duke St (with the reverse one-way Charles to match) could preserve those parking spaces. Or maybe there is another creative solution out there.

[danbrotherston]

Given that some developers (looking at you, 8 Queen) have decided that it is more cost effective to compel new owners to rent parking space elsewhere rather than build parking in their own developments, I don't think that it will be any easy sell to encourage them to build more parking.  You *might* be able able to convince a developer to build on a public lot with a condition that the City funds the parking garage component while the developer stacks a condo tower one top.  I could imagine that a developer might suggest that in this scenario, they should not be on the hook for building a parking garage, since their tenants can simply rent the parking spaces in the public garage.

As for UWaterloo's lack of a parking structure, I doubt that there is any kind of funding available for a parking structure within their current funding model.  Ontario Government funding is typically tied to new buildings, not basic infrastructure or maintenance.

I guess returning to the 1970s one-way Duke St (with the reverse one-way Charles to match) could preserve those parking spaces.  Or maybe there is another creative solution out there.

I’m not sure what parking space is you are looking to preserve? For most of its length Duke Street has no parking. Neither does Charles. Making Duke Street one way could make room for parking, but if they made it one way for parking and wouldn’t make it one way for cycling, that I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a riot in the city.

[cherrypark]

Referring to the D'Amato article talking about the church at Water and Duke that is lobbying not to lose their street parking spots for the stated reason of maintaining easier accessibility for those with limited mobility. In the proposed design they get removed to use that wider ROW as part of the section with an actual separated cycling route.

It's not exactly clear why the ones preserved on Water St. are insufficient for this purpose, at least if they were being used for drop-offs.

   

[nms]

I suspect that the issue is that in the image above, the accessible entrance is just to the right of the "No Left Turn" sign where you can see a green overhang. If I remember the building correctly, I don't think the Water St entrance is accessible as there are stairs immediately inside the doors.