Come September, changes will be coming to the four Edmonton transit stations that have park-and-ride lots. The city is looking at turning some of the free stalls into paid, reserved stalls.
Currently, there are nearly 5,000 people on the waiting list for reserved spots, most of which are at the Century Park station.
“Across the city there are four LRT park-and-ride locations with reserved monthly stalls,” Edmonton Transit System spokeswoman Jennifer Laraway said. “That waitlist is 4,600 right now, 3,500 of that alone being at Century Park.
“Very high demand. People definitely want to see the reserved stalls, but to increase the reserved stalls, we obviously have to move into the free stalls, which are also high demand.”
READ MORE: How Edmonton plans to address park-and-ride pressures
In March, after hearing from an ETS Advisory Board, council passed a motion to look at short-term solutions to the high demand for park-and-ride spots.
The three options being considered are:
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- Convert some free park-and-ride stalls to paid, reserved stalls;
- Increase the price to park in reserved park-and-ride stalls;
- Set time limits and/or charge fees for unreserved stalls.
“Edmonton Transit System has launched a survey to see what the scope of those changes should look like,” Laraway explained. “So, if we’re changing the number of reserved stalls, by how many are we increasing that to?
“What should the rate changes look like?
“Right now, we’re about $40 a month. That rate hasn’t changed since 2010. It’s about $2 to $3 a day to park so we know something needs to give there. We want customers to tell us what those thresholds look like.”
READ MORE: Edmonton park-and-ride report calls for more reserved parking, higher fees
The city posted an online survey on May 2 that will be open for one week. It wants to hear feedback from people who use the LRT, park-and-ride, and those who live or own businesses near park-and-ride lots.
After gathering that feedback, ETS will take the results back to the transportation committee at the end of June. As long as no changes are needed, implementation is set for September.
“I want people to prepare now for September,” Laraway said.
“There are going to be more reserved stalls and to get those more reserved stalls, they have to come from the current free stall inventory.
“People can start to plan ahead about whether to get on those waitlists, whether they want to ride-share and carpool – that would really help maximize the number of free stalls we do have available – or if they want to take a bus from their community. We have a lot of tools online that they can trip plan with,” she said. “It might not be as long of a commute as people think.”
The ratio of free stalls to paid, reserved spots is about 85 to 15 per cent, Laraway said.
The four stations that have paid, reserved stalls are Clareview, Belvedere, Stadium and Century Park.
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