98 accessible parking spots ‘not enough’
Changes to the city’s parking enforcement system is ending free parking for disabled drivers in any on-street spot, but one councillor says it is the low number of accessible stalls in the city overall that needs to be urgently addressed.
There are 98 on-street accessible parking spots through Edmonton’s EPark system, but more than 30,000 residents with disabled parking needs, city operations spokesman Rohit Sandhu said in an email Thursday.
Ward 1 Coun. Andrew Knack said it is clear there is not enough parking for the disabled.
“We don’t need to spend a lot of time on engagement,” said Knack, who is also the council’s adviser to the accessibility advisory committee. “Ninety-eight is not enough.”
It isn’t so much about the cost to park, Knack added, but the need for additional spots that are big enough to accommodate aids such as wheelchairs and ramps. Proximity to essential services also needs to be considered, Knack said, suggesting the idea of at least one accessible stall per city block.
Advisory committee chairman Zachary Weeks said people with disabilities have the same right as everyone else to go to places across the city and they shouldn’t have to worry about not being able to park nearby.
“It’s definitely not enough by any stretch of the imagination and this is something that definitely needs to be addressed,” Weeks said. “People with disabilities want to enjoy all of the city, not just a certain portion of it.”
The discussion started after placard holders received a letter dated June 13 notifying them that courtesy parking will end July 15 when parking enforcement starts using a digital camera to read licence plates. The new automated system doesn’t have the ability to read the parking placards, deputy city manager Gord Cebryk said in the letter.
The city looked into possible solutions such as building databases, creating stickers for licence plates, and exemption lists for placard holders, Sandhu said in the email, but all “considerations were deemed too costly or operationally ineffective.”
City-labelled and other “select vehicles,” such as unmarked police vehicles, were able to submit their licence plate numbers to the city to remain exempt from payment, Sandhu said.
Councillors received an email about one month ago, Knack said, allowing them to register their licence plates so they could continue receiving courtesy parking under the new system.
This option wasn’t extended to accessible placard users, Sandhu said, because it is possible that the placards are used in several different vehicles and residents don’t have one specific licence plate to register. Because the parking placards can’t be identified under the new system, Sandhu said the 98 accessible stalls in the city will continue to be monitored by parking enforcement officers.
In a statement last Tuesday, Cebryk said this new automated technology will “enable enforcement officers to focus on other issues such as school drop-off and pick-up zones.”
“We are listening to the issues that placard holders are raising and we are committed to taking their important feedback into account as we determine next steps for implementing automated enforcement,” the statement said.
City officials declined to provide further information until after the council meeting.
It’s definitely not enough by any stretch of the imagination and this is something that definitely needs to be addressed.