iTrans offers a further parking alternative, taking into account minimal changes to the current parking, which would enable a better traffic flow on 3rd Avenue in downtown Drumheller.
iTrans, the consulting firm which carried out the traffic flow analysis following Alberta Transportation’s changes to 2nd Street, suggests another alternative would be to implement parallel parking between Highway 9 and 1st Street on both sides, with angled parking remaining as is on the remainder of 3rd Avenue.
This would enable the creation of two lanes in that section of 3rd Avenue to ease the traffic flow congestion, losing 11 parking stalls.
During the Parking Task Force meeting on Wednesday, March 31 at Community Futures Big Country’s offices, Jay Magus, senior project manager for iTrans, explained the life expectancy of this alternative would probably be around five to ten years, after which it will need to be reviewed due to the increase in traffic flow.
Magus highlighted this wasn’t his preferred alternative however, due to safety issues. He also felt it didn’t promote traffic flow in the area.
When asked if data was available on the safety aspect of each of the parking options, angled and parallel, Magus said he didn’t have any data on this.
Following the Task Force’s request, Magus provided a collision history data, dated September 2007, for 2nd Street West, showing 13 collisions in a 4-year period with no fatalities and two injuries, eight of the collisions occuring at the Gordon Taylor Bridge.
With this in mind, there was a discussion around the intersection at 2nd Avenue West, the conclusion being that without a gap analysis, it was difficult to determine whether this intersection could be changed without affecting the safety of travellers.
A question had been raised regarding whether a signal would be required in the near-term future at the Centre Street and 3rd Avenue intersection, which currently has a 4-way stop. Magus confirmed no signal would be required as this intersection was operating at acceptable levels for all alternatives.
Bob Sheddy, Real Estate professional specializing in commercial properties, was invited to speak about the impact downtown parking has on businesses based there to the Task Force.
Sheddy presented his views on the removal of parking stalls from a commercial real estate broker’s perspective.
Giving the example of Walmart and Canadian Tire, Sheddy explained that both have parking lot capacities well above what is used, to give the perception of unlimited parking and attract customers.
Sheddy explained the amount of parking that existed in downtown prior to 2009 was already insufficient compared to the parking requirements to accommodate the businesses at full capacity together with their customers.
Sheddy also highlighted that businesses often base their location on the parking available in an area.
“There are a number of local businesses that for one reason or another, have moved out of the downtown core, to new premises and cited “Parking” as one of the benefits of moving to the new location,” he explained.
Sheddy concluded that reducing parking stalls would have a financial impact on the value of a building and/or the bottom line of the business in the building.
The Parking Task Force is meeting again on Thursday, April 8 at 4:00 p.m. at Community Futures’ offices. This will be the Task Force's last meeting and they will be reviewing the points which will be included in their report to Council.
Barry Fullerton, chair of the Parking Task Force is optimistic the group will be ready to present their report after their last meeting.
“I have been extremely pleased with the group and how they have worked together, considering everyone came with probably fairly diverging point of views but they have been willing to work with the others. From my point of view, it has been excellent,” said Barry Fullerton.