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Parking in Waterloo Region
Waterloo could add a lot of parking spots if they simply made their spots 1/2 as large.

The newly painted lines along the recently re-paved Regina are massive:
   
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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LOL! When my smart fortwo was my daily driver, sometimes a friend and I would park both our cars in one spot. We could probably park four in those!
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Looks like they're making the assumption people don't know how to parallel park.
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(08-02-2018, 06:31 AM)timio Wrote: Looks like they're making the assumption people don't know how to parallel park.

For the overwhelming majority of today's drivers, I'd say that was a good assumption on their part.

At first I was giving them credit that maybe adding one more space would cramp the rest that they were too small, but regardless of how long that stretch is, at minimum one more spot would fit easily....  But as we learned.... drivers don't follow markings/parking instructions anyway.....

Coke
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Wow, if they just didn't paint stalls at all, cars would still park closer than that.
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(08-02-2018, 09:00 AM)Coke6pk Wrote:
(08-02-2018, 06:31 AM)timio Wrote: Looks like they're making the assumption people don't know how to parallel park.

For the overwhelming majority of today's drivers, I'd say that was a good assumption on their part.

At first I was giving them credit that maybe adding one more space would cramp the rest that they were too small, but regardless of how long that stretch is, at minimum one more spot would fit easily....  But as we learned.... drivers don't follow markings/parking instructions anyway.....

Coke

Perhaps the city is attempting to lower the number of vehicles parked on streets in some areas of the city?
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there are 4 spots, would there be room for a 5th?
the city is by there and they have trucks park in the area when working on the gardens there, some of the trucks are kind of big, could that be why as well?
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I work nearby and see drivers attempt to parallel park along this section on a regular basis. From what I've seen of the average driver, these spots are too SMALL. Many people struggle to park in these spaces resulting in bumps and scrapes on nearly a weekly basis. All cities require parallel parking spaces to be longer than regular parking lot spaces to allow for turning radius.
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So this is the latest, and probably most misleading in articles about parking minimums in uptown:

https://www.kitchenertoday.com/local-new...ng-1043546

The claim that this change in any way limits the parking in uptown is patently untrue, so far as I understand, no parking maximums have been proposed.

This only reduces the minimums for parking.

Frankly, I think council's positioning of this change is incorrect anyway. They shouldn't talk about reducing parking, or anything like that, this should be a simple transition to market dictated parking amounts. "Before, we forced developers to build a certain amount of parking. This makes no sense, as developers know better how much parking is needed. Now, we let developers decide how much parking is needed."

This works reasonably well in uptown where parking isn't free everywhere all day...although it would be better if we priced curb space instead of timing it.

(Yes, I might currently be reading this book: https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Par...193236496X)
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(09-11-2018, 01:13 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: So this is the latest, and probably most misleading in articles about parking minimums in uptown:

https://www.kitchenertoday.com/local-new...ng-1043546

The claim that this change in any way limits the parking in uptown is patently untrue, so far as I understand, no parking maximums have been proposed.

This only reduces the minimums for parking.

Frankly, I think council's positioning of this change is incorrect anyway.  They shouldn't talk about reducing parking, or anything like that, this should be a simple transition to market dictated parking amounts.  "Before, we forced developers to build a certain amount of parking. This makes no sense, as developers know better how much parking is needed.  Now, we let developers decide how much parking is needed."

This works reasonably well in uptown where parking isn't free everywhere all day...although it would be better if we priced curb space instead of timing it.

(Yes, I might currently be reading this book: https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Par...193236496X)

Is that news or editorial? Hard to tell... kind of more like a blog post.

I've read that book and am currently reading Parking in the City.
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(09-11-2018, 01:49 PM)plam Wrote: ...

I've read that book and am currently reading Parking in the City.

How is it?  I have (finally) finished the high cost of free parking, and am looking for the next book.

I started this book as a converted urbanist who already supported reduced parking requirements, transit, bike lanes, better urban form. I expected this book wouldn't really convince me of anything, but would provide more background. I was perhaps wrong. The author provides a compelling argument that free parking isn't just one concern of many for our cities, but possibly the biggest concern that urbanists should focus on. The author also provides a number of well thought out processes to politically palatable mechanisms for achieving goals of charging for parking and reducing parking minimums. Overall, even if you think you know what the book has to say already, it's still worth reading. That being said, the author provides so much evidence, that it would be nice if there were perhaps, a more concise version of the book presenting the same ideas.

I would highly recommend it as a book for reading.  So much so, I am considering how or if I could buy it for the new city council and/or mayor after the election.  The one issue is the length, it is such a long book; does anyone know of a shorter, more concise book that proposes the same ideas/arguments?
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(09-16-2018, 12:17 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(09-11-2018, 01:49 PM)plam Wrote: ...

I've read that book and am currently reading Parking in the City.

How is it?  I have (finally) finished the high cost of free parking, and am looking for the next book.

I started this book as a converted urbanist who already supported reduced parking requirements, transit, bike lanes, better urban form. I expected this book wouldn't really convince me of anything, but would provide more background. I was perhaps wrong. The author provides a compelling argument that free parking isn't just one concern of many for our cities, but possibly the biggest concern that urbanists should focus on. The author also provides a number of well thought out processes to politically palatable mechanisms for achieving goals of charging for parking and reducing parking minimums. Overall, even if you think you know what the book has to say already, it's still worth reading. That being said, the author provides so much evidence, that it would be nice if there were perhaps, a more concise version of the book presenting the same ideas.

I would highly recommend it as a book for reading.  So much so, I am considering how or if I could buy it for the new city council and/or mayor after the election.  The one issue is the length, it is such a long book; does anyone know of a shorter, more concise book that proposes the same ideas/arguments?

Yes. Happy to lend you the second book once I finish it.

Unlike The High Cost of Free Parking, this is a collection of book chapters by different authors. Sometimes it's a bit repetitive as many people make the same point (but often with different bodies of evidence). The first few chapters do serve as a condensed version of Shoup's main argument (and he writes that in the Foreword). There is only a bit of new argumentation in the second book (I think there's much more discussion of disabled placard abuse, for instance) but there even more empirical evidence.
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The High Cost of Free Parking is still on my reading list. Worth it?
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(09-16-2018, 09:49 PM)Spokes Wrote: The High Cost of Free Parking is still on my reading list.  Worth it?

Yeah. But it is pretty long.
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Is this really necessary? Are people who use the Kitchener parking feeling so unappreciated that they might take their parking elsewhere or not come park at all?
   
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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