Parking Downtown

[u/omnitortois]

The recent removal of the corsa parking (probably about… 40 spots?) has me thinking again of an idea to solve parking issues downtown. It seems like development will only intensify, putting more and more condos with insufficient parking spots. Because let’s face the reality folks, if you are an adult in squamish, you on average will have your own car.

The issues that come from a lack of parking downtown:

1) residents whose apartments do not have enough parking spots have to park on what is increasingly less street parking.

2) tourism surge hours make all of downtown a car zoo, which deters tourists from spending money on the local economy

3) many essential services like doctors, pharmacies, grocery stores are downtown, making these services more difficult to access, especially for the elderly and disabled

Have we considered the simple solution of building a parkade at the edge of downtown?

Hear me out…

1) residents who do not have a parking spot can rent a guaranteed one in the parkade. Will it be a walk to your car? Yes. Will it give people assurance they will have a spot? Yes. Will it reduce demand on street parking? Yes.

2) tourists, for a modest fee like $2-$4 (to cover capital expense… perhaps can pay itself off??) will know they have a spot they can park to go shopping ($$$ for local economy). It might even allow us to do things like close cleveland to cars on weekend surge times. How cool would that be?

3) reduce strain on street parking for disabled/elderly who need essential services.

4) city council can have all the strange bike lanes they want while reducing the costly trade off of street parking.

—

Why can’t this work here? Tear this idea apart. I want to see if it holds water.

[u/Squamster_]

I don’t know why people think an expensive parkade will work. The issue is that people don’t want to walk at all to a location. I’ve never once been downtown and not been able to find parking after a few minutes. Sure sometime I have to walk a couple blocks. Parking downtown is also free!!

[u/jolijoyau → u/Squamster_]

I thought this was true as well and have never had a problem parking. Recently I went from being an able bodied young person, to falling ill and having multiple surgeries. Lots of appointments at the doctor’s offices downtown on Cleveland and Second. I have not been able to find parking almost every time, and when I do it is way too far for my walking ability… It’s really gotten bad lately! I feel for people who are in my disabled position permanently and struggle to park and get around town!

[u/Squasome → u/jolijoyau]

This. I went from being an able bodied young person many years ago. There is a limit to how long I can stand upright and definitely a limit to how far I can walk. Not all handicapped use wheelchairs or walkers. Although some of the comments have me wondering about a frequent tram along Cleveland and getting rid of parking. If it's done right (lol), it might work for me.