There are always many questions and concerns raised about the City of Waterloo parking by-laws and the reason for specific time and zone restrictions. Parking is a complex issue and there is not one easy answer and one easy solution.
The city's overnight and three hour restrictions have been put in place for a number of reasons including road maintenance, road safety, municipal liability, crime prevention and nuisance control.
These reasons cover many issues but the underlying concern is making sure the roads are safe,available for maintenance issues when needed and takes into consideration that roadways were never considered or designed as a long term parking solution. Waterloo has gone beyond most municipalities and offers an online and telephone exemption system consisting of 18 exemptions per residence each year. This system is designed to allow for those instances when extended short term parking is required while at the same time attempting to maintain the community standard that exists in Waterloo with respect to parking.
To this point Council has passed the UpTown Waterloo Parking Strategy, in hopes of dealing with issues that have arisen in the UpTown area. City staff are also working on a city wide pay and display strategy to present to Council sometime in 2011. It is not anticipated at this time that on street parking in residential zones will change in the near future. We must also consider that even if the current restrictions were to be modified, there would still likely be a combination of restriction, prohibition and paid parking woven into any new system. Also, any new system would have to consider safety as it relates to road widths, community standards as it relates to the wishes of each area, and ongoing maintenance.
I hope this information helps to clarify some of your questions and puts some reasoning behind the parking by-laws the city currently has in place.
6 comments:
I appreciate you responding to the twitter traffic and explaining that there are a lot of variables that go into parking by-law decisions. I think the exemption system is a great work around but it is required because we have different parking by-laws than Kitchener where you can park overnight when it isn't snow season.
Why do we have different by-laws? When were they written? My feeling is that they were written back when this was a much smaller city dominated by University traffic, larger businesses with plenty of parking (or not in the case of the old Clarica), and a very dead uptown region with little night life (and no drinking and driving laws).
The reality is that Waterloo is a city that gets in the way of a vibrant uptown by making parking a huge problem, not by the amount of parking spots but in how you are treated when you park in one. Examples:
1. Have a business meeting at Coffee Culture - you an park on the street and get a ticket pretty much on the hour or in the mall parking for two hours. The mall parking works but what if you had two meetings? What if they went over? Bing, ticket. I will meet in Kitchener instead.
2. I went to uptown for a nice meal, had a few drinks, few more people show up and we enjoy the whole night in uptown spending hundreds of dollars at local bars, pubs, etc. I get a nice $35 ding plus the cab cost if I do the responsible thing and leave my car.
There are plenty more scenarios that come to mind. The twitter chatter was because of a 3 hour parking by-law in front of people's houses. That is the most annoying of all. If I am doing yard work, cleaning the garage, have family over... they can't park for the afternoon? That is outrageous.
As Kitchener makes more positive moves that Waterloo with regards to small and medium size business I am more inclined to 'meet for coffee' there where the time limits are longer. When it comes to a home, well Waterloo is my home now (grew up in the Soo) and I like it here but I think it really dumb how we treat people with regards to by-laws.
...and what sets me off the most? Parking is so heavily enforced yet I have people dumping their doggy 'bags' in my yard in Westmount and cars whizzing past my kids because Westmount rd has no enforcement in Waterloo and nothing to slow people down. Bigger problems than parking for sure.
Hi Brenda,
Firstly, I wanted to thank you for your active engagement and post regarding the issue. Its nice to see a tech oriented person as our Mayor and one that is easily accessible. I just wanted to throw my two cents in on some of the reasoning for such bylaws and why I do not agree.
I would also like to agree with jrogers on the over night ticket. I had a business launch party uptown (thinking Kitchener next time), had a bit too many and left my car overnight, thinking I had done the right thing only to get a ticket the next day. When I inquired about it, I was commended for not driving intoxicated yet my ticket was still enforced. I should not have to pay money out my pocket to the municipality (on top of the resources to enforce said bylaws) for not driving home drunk. Yes I could of scheduled it but I hardly drink and am never sure when exactly I will get intoxicated, if I do so choose to.
In response to your points:
1. Road Maintenance
This makes sense for closer to the uptown core but has no merit where the 3 hour bylaw is imposed as the only maintenance observed (so far for me) is the Garbage truck. If there needed to be construction on the street then citizens would be notified through observation of construction signs and the visible construction in general. (of course things such as street sweepers if any are affected, but this could easily be maintained and does not occur in more suburban areas unless I am mistaken).
2. Road Safety
Accidents happen randomly and will still occur if you park your car for 1 hour, 2 hours or even the whole day and night. If something happens it happens and imposing a time limit does not affect that. Of course the probability of accident is increased the longer one chooses to park). But, if there is parking available at all then it creates that random chance regardless, and thus the time limit is pointless.
3. Municipal liability
This makes sense but is not a viable reason. It would be ideal to impose a bylaw that says if you park your car in some place that makes it liable to anything, you (the owner) are responsible for the consequences of that. (although its nice to see people just do that in general!!). Of course I can only speculate on this point.
4. Crime Prevention and Nuisance control
A criminal will be a criminal if given the chance. Parkades prevent this more but cost money and are beside the point. If by your house, it is no different to it being in your driveway and is still equally open to a criminal offence. In uptown there is an actively populated area, and if someone is bold enough to perform a crime against a car then they are going to do it regardless. If its at night, not by your house or merely close to uptown and not so populated, know the consequences. Criminal activity can either be premeditated (they know your car and where it usually is) or not. As I pointed out above, the random chance of such events can not be properly mitigated by time limits.
The main point here is this hurts the local citizens more than it helps them.
I'm not too sure where you are parking in Kitchener, but I can tell you that I've done the responsible thing and left my car in Kitchener.. and received a ticket. As well, where I live the parking is strictly enforced.
I have received far more tickets in Kitchener than I ever did while living in Waterloo.
Also.. re: why different by-laws? They are different cities.. they just happen to be very close together... In ever other city I've lived in, neighbouring cities often had different bylaws.
Hi Brenda,
Let me first start by thanking you for taking the time to answer my tweet back with a blog post. It is really great to see that we have accessible politicians here and that you take an active role in the community. Thank you!
There is not much I can say beyond what jrodgers and brentlintner have said already. I agree with all of their points and would love to see some action taken on our parking by-laws. I'm not saying we should change them, but there seems to be enough public discontent on the issue to perhaps warrant further debate?
The biggest issues, in my humble opinion, are as follows:
1. 3 hour limit on residential streets. I don't see how that's meant to prevent crime, increase safety, or help with road maintenance (I think the city should ask for a parking exemptions from the residence of that street to perform road work). I do understand the restrictions imposed during winter months for snow removal and that's not what I'm debating here.
2. the 1 hour limit in the Waterloo core. It just isn't conducive to doing business. I have stopped coming to the core for business meetings, my lunches seem to last just over an hour, which pretty much guarantees a ticket. Kitchener's parking limit is 2hrs, what's wrong with that? I could write an entire article on this point alone.
3. Overnight parking should you need to. There should be a way to call the city and let it know that you've had more then one drink and can't drive. I'm not saying you should get an out of jail free card. But, some people will risk trying to drive home intoxicated because they know they'll get a ticket if they don't. Why not post a phone number on our parking signs that one can call and get an exemption? Now there's an idea that I think can help with crime prevention (i.e. drinking and driving)
I hope this becomes a point for public debate in the near future and driven by the city. I for one will do whatever I can to make sure it becomes one of the points for the next election campaign.
Again, thank you for your time and attention.
Dan Silivestru.
Evil Genius, my neighbours and myself frequently leave our cars on the road (on a major bus route no less) in the Pioneer Park area.
Kitchener does enforce a three-hour limit during winter months (I can never remember the boundaries, October - April perhaps?), and I've received my fair share of tickets especially for overnight parking then as well.
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