A marked decrease in the number of vehicles parked for extended periods on streets both downtown and near the hospital and a corresponding increase in the number of motorists using off-street parking spaces has emerged since the city's new parking strategy came into effect.
According to numbers the city released Wednesday, in the time since the strategy came into effect, the average number of vehicles scanned via the license plate recognition system has dropped from a daily average of 1,365 in November to 1,069 in January.
Along with that, the vacancy rate at the city's monthly rental stalls declined from 22.7 per cent to 18.6 per cent. and the vacancy rate on the hourly and daily stalls has dropped from 57 per cent to 24 per cent.
And the number of tickets issued to vehicles parked in violation of the three-hour time limit downtown has dropped from 244 in November to 174 in January while the count for the hospital parking zone fell from 77 to 32.
Pay station revenue has more than doubled, from $8,536 on 2,594 transactions in October to $22,240 on 4,552 transactions in January.
The strategy for the downtown was launched in November and later extended to include the two-hour hospital parking zone by the middle of that month.
