FOR those who think it’s tough finding a parking spot downtown, a study commissioned by the city has found otherwise.
Downtown parking isn’t crowded by any means on weekdays or weekends but parking turnover for businesses isn’t ideal, determined the study conducted by the MMM Group.
Floris van Weelderen and Davin Shillong from the company presented their findings to city council Feb. 8.
Peak time for parking on weekdays is during the lunch hour and in the early afternoon when 30 per cent of the parking spaces on the street are being used.
That leaves plenty of downtown parking spaces, said van Weelderen.
On Saturdays after lunch is the peak parking time when about 20 per cent of the parking spaces downtown are occupied, he added.
These results were found last November, which van Weelderen said is a typical month for downtown parking.
Turnover and duration of parking is important for businesses.
Short-term parking here is 15 or 30 minutes and long-term parking is one hour long.
In an eight-hour day, one car could be in a long-term parking space each hour so the maximum turnover would be eight; but the results showed turnover was only 2.15 cars on weekdays and on Saturday, that number decreased to one car, said van Weelderen.
For short-term parking, the turnover was 3.5 on weekdays and 2.1 on Saturday.
The results so far were also released at a stakeholder meeting in the afternoon and at a public open house in the evening of Feb. 8.
The MMM Group will now come up with ideas on how downtown parking should be handled and those ideas are expected this spring.
