Traffic and parking bylaw review

Larry Foster

Opinion

There are no official meetings this week, but the Art in Public Places committee meet this afternoon and we have a bylaws workshop on Thursday that will consist of a draft Traffic and Parking Bylaw review and a draft Freedom Camping Bylaw 2020 review.

The Traffic and Parking Bylaw review was undertaken by staff alongside Abley Transport consulting. This compared our bylaw with those in operation at other councils, and our council's existing Parking Policy 2018. The workshop will provide an overview of the draft bylaw and its proposed controls which include: general parking, parking of heavy vehicles, parking fee to be paid, discontinued parking space, interference of parking meters or pay-and-display parking meters, unlawful parking, one-way roads, turning restrictions, transport of stock, skateboards, roller skates, inline skates and wheeled recreational devices, vehicle crossings, and offences and penalties. So you can see there are a lot of components to this one bylaw.

Council staff are seeking feedback on the proposed Inner Harbour parking controls and will also discuss a possible mechanism for implementing a heavy vehicle route restriction should the council decide to proceed.

The inner harbour parking has become quite controversial since the completion of most of the upgrade, so I am sure some of the recommendations will be debated carefully. Staff are advising that as the inner harbour grows into a commercial hub, it will be necessary to incorporate pay-and-display parking to drive turnover. The parking sector is going through a period of rapid change as new technologies for payment and monitoring emerge. Staff foresee the upgrade of our parking infrastructure as possibly part of the 2024-2034 Long-Term Plan, well within the 10-year lifespan of the bylaw. It is recommended that the council signal, through consultation, that payment for all parking types in the Inner Harbour — barring loading zones and 30-minute parking — is being planned for.

Section 18 of the bylaw prohibits the use of skateboards, roller skates and wheeled recreational vehicles within a defined area of our CBD. This restriction limits the use of electric scooters in the CBD, whose popularity and utility as alternative means of transport should be considered alongside health and safety questions around mixing these transport modes with pedestrian traffic. Some councils have moved away from similar bans as various forms of active transport have become more desirable.

Staff are recommending we either continue to ban skateboards, roller skates and wheeled recreational vehicles on CBD footpaths; or amend the ban to permit some modes on to CBD footpaths; or remove the ban and permit all forms of active and electric transport, not already restricted by statute, from using CBD footpaths. This will also create a good debate.

As far as the heavy vehicle route restrictions go, we will only be discussing the mechanism by which the council will effect a heavy vehicle route restriction should it choose to do so. There are two ways of restricting traffic:

1) Establish heavy vehicle routes, which limit heavy vehicles (above a certain weight) to defined routes.

2) Implement prohibitions on heavy vehicles driving on particular roads, using signage.

Option 2 is preferable as it can be used to protect areas where heavy vehicle movements are undesirable, while still allowing flexibility for minor deviations from established routes where necessary. The heavy vehicle route restrictions currently under consideration would require a combination of CCTV and periodic visual monitoring to enforce effectively. Footage would be reviewed periodically, and upon the receipt of a complaint it would establish whether an infringement has occurred.