New park-and-ride on Douglas to add 57 parking stalls

‘We’re reducing costs for commuters,’ says head of downtown business group

Another 57 parking stalls will soon open in a second park-and-ride lot near Victoria’s downtown.

Robbins Parking and B.C. Housing have just signed a contract to open up another 57 spots along Douglas Street, Jeff Bray, executive director of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, told city councillors in an annual DVBA update.

A shortage of parking downtown continues to be top of mind for many DVBA members, Bray said.

With a turnover of three times a day, opening a 57-stall park-andride has the potential to free up the equivalent of about 170 parking spots downtown, Bray said.

“That’s really where we think we can make a big difference at no cost to anybody. In fact, we’re reducing costs for commuters,” Bray said

In partnership with Robbins, the Pattison Group, B.C. Transit and the city, the DVBA opened its first park-and-ride lot at Douglas Street and Frances Avenue near Mayfair mall in April 2017. For $100, a driver can rent a park-andride stall and be provided a monthly bus pass.

Bray said the cost for parking at the new lot — the location hasn’t been announced — will be $120 plus GST. The DVBA hopes to better target its marketing of the new lot to ensure it’s attracting downtown commuters.

“We saw when we did the Mayfair spot — there were 34 spots — that we sold 34 spots very quickly but not 34 bus passes which indicated to us that potentially some of those were people who worked in the area and we really want to focus on diverting commuters,” Bray said.

A combination of new buildings being constructed on former private parking lots, new bike lanes, and general construction has exacerbated parking woes downtown.

Four years ago, hoping to increase turnover in on-street parking and increase parkade use, the city introduced a number of parking changes, including reducing rates and making the first hour in parkades free.

It worked. City parkades are now regularly full weekdays between of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. City staff say parkade use has increased more than 75 per cent since 2014.

Mayor Lisa Helps said the city is facing a shortfall of about 400 parking stalls downtown.

Victoria councillors recently agreed to raise long-term daily parking rates in parkades in an effort to reduce commuter parking and free up more spaces for short-term shoppers.

The city manages about 4,300 parking spots — 2,000 on street, about 400 in surface parking lots and 1,935 in parkades.

The DVBA is in discussions to test a Government Street pedestrian mall this summer in which two blocks would be closed to vehicle traffic on Sundays.

“We’re actively pursuing Government Street to look at a pilot project for two to three months to gauge the activation, the impact on business and what the visitors actually think about it.

“The area would not impact the tour buses so the tour buses would still be able to do their drop off and pick up.”