Watch: A temporary plan to remove some parking metres in front of some businesses is not sitting well with the business owners. Vinesh Pratap reports.
EDMONTON – With the 102 Avenue bridge closed for construction, more drivers have to use Stony Plain Road to get downtown from the west. However, a section of parking metres — and what some call a failure to enforce the peak-hour parking ban — has the city looking at removing the metres altogether.
There are currently nearly 20 parking metres lining Stony Plain Road just west of 124 Street. And, while there is a no parking allowed during peak traffic times, many people don’t seem to notice the ban. When they park in front of the metres, an entire lane of traffic is blocked off, and that results in substantial delays for east-bound commuters.
Some Edmontonians say those vehicles should just be towed right away. But, since the city doesn’t own any tow trucks of its own, it can patrol the area, but has to call — and wait — for a tow truck to respond.
The transportation department is suggesting a temporary solution: remove the metres and build a parking lot on the other side of Stony Plain Road.
“Even in off-peak, there was quite a bit of congestion there coming in from the west, coming into downtown,” said area city councillor Scott McKeen. “I was getting a lot of pressure, emails from a lot of constituents, and a couple of my colleagues on council were also getting pressure and then coming to me and saying ‘what can we do?'”
“We tried to find a compromise solution here in developing a temporary, paid parking lot.”
The city has already begun work on this plan, but an appeal has been filed.
“I don’t think it’s the right solution,” Sarah Proudlock, owner of The Tea Girl.
“They just seem to be reacting to a few complaints — maybe a lot of complaints — but just general traffic complaints as opposed to looking at the whole situation and how to solve it as a whole.”
McKeen admits he perhaps should have spent a little more time speaking to area businesses and explaining what the city was trying to do.
“My number concern was those local businesses,” he says, adding he’s also heard from Ward 6 residents.
“With the traffic backed up many blocks, you can imagine, you live in one of those neighbourhoods and you’re trying to get out of it, it can be a real problem.”
Still, Proudlock hopes the city will consider other options instead of the temporary parking lot.
“I think they need to follow up so that everyone knows the hours you can’t park here, and I think they need to tow in the times that they do say you can’t park here,” she explains. “They don’t redirect the traffic… and they haven’t adjusted the lights in those areas.”
“Any change that makes it less convenient for customers makes the customers disappear,” says Proudlock.
The proposed temporary parking lot would be in place until the 102 Avenue bridge reopens.
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