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Parking issues and discussion (City of Victoria & Greater Victoria)


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#4361 Ismo07

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Posted 09 July 2020 - 07:43 AM

So today the restaurant association has announced food businesses in downtown Vancouver and Victoria are earning 20-30% of their pre-COVID revenues. So that makes me wonder, are the parking revenues we’re seeing really those of workers who’ve opted not to take the bus or use alternate transport to get to work, and are instead driving?

I feel as though we need the city to conduct a proper survey to assess office load levels. We ought to know these things.

 

I've never really gotten into the revenues as rates are still lower than what our regular rates have been.  Reporting has been done by transactions.  Remember there are 724 - 90 minute spaces in the downtown core.  Slightly reduced as flex zones are created for businesses.  Last yeah Jun 24th -28th there were 3,979 transactions of 90 minutes or less.  The same week this year we saw 3,757 transactions in those spaces that were 90 minutes or less.  These are not commuters typically.  I can find out how many under 30 minutes and 60 minutes as well.  Parkades are slower to come back, street parking is usually a little more palatable.  in June 2019 almost 77% of the transactions were under 3 hours (your downtown shoppers for the most part).  This year the rate of short-term parkers is at 72%.  The number of transactions however has been cut by over half (106,000 vs 51,000).   These numbers are still improving daily/weekly just over 16% increase from the first two weeks of June compared to the last two weeks.

 

There are certainly different commuters using the parkades and limited time zones outside the core.  There will be further adjustments as we move forward.



#4362 Nparker

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Posted 09 July 2020 - 07:47 AM

As one of the few staffers who have continued to come into the office each day since the great exodus took place, I can attest to the small numbers who occupy my place of work. Presumably, this is the same for other downtown Victoria offices. Without co-workers to accompany me, I am also spending far less time in d/t restaurants for lunches and coffee out. I don't see this changing anytime soon.



#4363 GetLisaSomeHelps

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Posted 09 July 2020 - 07:51 AM

I don't see this changing anytime soon.

 

There's potential for it to continue on perpetually if a lot of the office workers see working from home become a permanent thing.



#4364 spanky123

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Posted 09 July 2020 - 07:53 AM

As one of the few staffers who have continued to come into the office each day since the great exodus took place, I can attest to the small numbers who occupy my place of work. Presumably, this is the same for other downtown Victoria offices. Without co-workers to accompany me, I am also spending far less time in d/t restaurants for lunches and coffee out. I don't see this changing anytime soon.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the Viatec survey found that 60% of tech employees NEVER plan to return to their offices. I think that it is fair to extrapolate this to other professional services as well. If that is true and our best case scenario is 40% of workers returning to the core then it is over for a majority of small restaurants, cafes and service sector businesses. It will also mean that many of the pending developments in town will have to rethink their plans. If there are far fewer downtown workers then are people even going to want to rent or purchase downtown in the numbers anticipated.

 

Council and staff need to get their head out of their butts and stop thinking that allowing their friends and campaign donors to have a few picnic tables on the street is going to save the downtown economy.  I laugh when I read comments on the Mayor's twitter feed about how Government street looks like a European pedestrian mall now. Obviously the comments are from people who have never been to Europe or even spent 30 seconds using Google street view!


Edited by spanky123, 09 July 2020 - 07:59 AM.

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#4365 spanky123

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Posted 09 July 2020 - 07:57 AM

As one of the few staffers who have continued to come into the office each day since the great exodus took place, I can attest to the small numbers who occupy my place of work. Presumably, this is the same for other downtown Victoria offices. Without co-workers to accompany me, I am also spending far less time in d/t restaurants for lunches and coffee out. I don't see this changing anytime soon.

 

Other big impact is on bike lanes. How many people do you see riding bikes during the day on Fort or Pandora? Next to nobody is the answer. Good thing we are spending millions to upgrade them even further.


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#4366 marks_28

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Posted 09 July 2020 - 10:14 AM

Other big impact is on bike lanes. How many people do you see riding bikes during the day on Fort or Pandora? Next to nobody is the answer. Good thing we are spending millions to upgrade them even further.

 

Lol that is just not true. I use the Pandora bike lane maybe 4, 5 times a week, and each 5-10 min trip there are at least 10+ other cyclists. Coming home on Canada Day the counter on the Goose was over 2,700. The idea that the bike lanes aren't being used isn't true. I don't have data to compare YoY, but they are still getting good use.


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#4367 Mike K.

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Posted 09 July 2020 - 06:42 PM

Lol that is just not true. I use the Pandora bike lane maybe 4, 5 times a week, and each 5-10 min trip there are at least 10+ other cyclists. Coming home on Canada Day the counter on the Goose was over 2,700. The idea that the bike lanes aren't being used isn't true. I don't have data to compare YoY, but they are still getting good use.

At 1PM on a business day this week it was 488. That many cars historically cross the Johnson Street Bridge every 20 minutes.

10+ cyclists across 5-10 minutes is not good. It’s really bad, actually. I wouldn’t be using that volume to promote the lanes.
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#4368 Ismo07

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:10 AM

At 1PM on a business day this week it was 488. That many cars historically cross the Johnson Street Bridge every 20 minutes.

10+ cyclists across 5-10 minutes is not good. It’s really bad, actually. I wouldn’t be using that volume to promote the lanes.

 

Mike were you talking about the Goose or Wharf counter?  That seems very low for the Goose.



#4369 Mike K.

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:12 AM

That’s the Goose. I had to stop for a 1PM meeting at the coffee shop next door and the number read 488. It was a normal day, no rain.

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#4370 Ismo07

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:15 AM

That’s the Goose. I had to stop for a 1PM meeting at the coffee shop next door and the number read 488. It was a normal day, no rain.

 

Yeah that is odd, the counter at Wharf and Gov might even beat that.



#4371 Mike K.

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:22 AM

Yeah, not sure. Maybe it was a one-off. Maybe there was rain in the forecast and people drove in. Hard to say but I did note the number as being unusually low.

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#4372 Ismo07

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:30 AM

Yeah, not sure. Maybe it was a one-off. Maybe there was rain in the forecast and people drove in. Hard to say but I did note the number as being unusually low.

 

Well and just like a large drop in car traffic, it's understandable there is a reduction in bikes.  I mean relying on counts for the bike lanes now to say no one is riding them, maybe we don't really need the McKenzie overpass either. ;) 


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#4373 spanky123

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:38 AM

Lol that is just not true. I use the Pandora bike lane maybe 4, 5 times a week, and each 5-10 min trip there are at least 10+ other cyclists. Coming home on Canada Day the counter on the Goose was over 2,700. The idea that the bike lanes aren't being used isn't true. I don't have data to compare YoY, but they are still getting good use.

 

I am not referring to leisure riders on weekends and holidays. I was pointing to office commuters who use Fort and Pandora to get to work.



#4374 Ismo07

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:47 AM

I am not referring to leisure riders on weekends and holidays. I was pointing to office commuters who use Fort and Pandora to get to work.

Well Pandora certainly still has pretty decent use.  Again, vehicles commuters are way down so it would stand to reason biking commuters would see a decrease.



#4375 Hotel Mike

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 07:49 AM

My take is that the bike lanes on Pandora and Wharf have been a big success. They also make sense. The lack of thought and the rush to build the Fort Street bike lane is what pissed a lot of people off. 


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Don't be so sure.:cool:

#4376 Ismo07

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 08:09 AM

Just a quick on-street paid parking stat: July 11, 2019 we had 8,877 parking transactions, yesterday July 9th (same Thursday) 7,214.  81% of the transactions of last summer on the same day.  Slowly getting there.


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#4377 FogPub

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Posted 10 July 2020 - 09:07 PM

Just over the last few weeks there seems to be a considerable increase in traffic of all kinds.



#4378 spanky123

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Posted 11 July 2020 - 10:13 AM

Just a quick on-street paid parking stat: July 11, 2019 we had 8,877 parking transactions, yesterday July 9th (same Thursday) 7,214.  81% of the transactions of last summer on the same day.  Slowly getting there.

 

What is monthly parking pass usage like in City parkades compared to last year? Pass usage and not the number of passes sold please and thanks.


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#4379 Ismo07

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Posted 13 July 2020 - 07:50 AM

What is monthly parking pass usage like in City parkades compared to last year? Pass usage and not the number of passes sold please and thanks.

 

I looked at this a month ago and we saw about 63% of monthly pass use, which is higher than the daily use comparing to last year.  I'll try to get a number from last Thursday for an update.  This isn't something I track much because we have a small number of monthly parkers.  I will add however that all day parkers for the month of June compared to last year is at 88%.  That is quite significant that shows how many commuters are still coming in.  Granted its a boon as parkades are less expensive than the surface lots around town so there is a lift from that and as mentioned before some are transit riders or, to a lesser extent, people that have been asked not to car pool.


Edited by Ismo07, 13 July 2020 - 07:51 AM.


#4380 Brantastic

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Posted 13 July 2020 - 09:53 AM

Other big impact is on bike lanes. How many people do you see riding bikes during the day on Fort or Pandora? Next to nobody is the answer. Good thing we are spending millions to upgrade them even further.

Ridiculous. I live on Pandora, can see the lanes from my window, and use them daily. They're very well used. 


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