Hundreds of Victoria parking spots are unavailable to drivers looking to park their cars every day, according to city staff.
In a report on the city’s parking services, staff say parking space inventory is reduced by 150 to 200 spaces daily because of development and other parking permits.
Of the approximately 4,300 parking spots that the city manages, 2,000 are on-street metered parking spaces available for short-term parking.
Roughly 10 per cent of those are occupied daily and unavailable for public parkers, according to staff.
The report also reveals how long on average drivers are paying for parking. In 90-minute zones, staff say the average stay is 50 minutes.
Parkades continue to create capacity challenges for the city on weekdays during peak periods between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Staff say the parkade rate increases implemented in 2018 have helped in reducing the number of monthly parkers.
Of the 1,935 parkade spaces, approximately 23 per cent are currently used by monthly parkers, leaving 77 per cent for daily parkers.
The report also suggests council consider scrapping its plan to charge regular weekday rates on Sundays beginning in May, when free Sunday street parking is officially scrapped.
Instead, staff recommend a rate of $2 per hour on Sundays with no time restrictions and $1 per hour in outlying metered areas.
Extending paid parking until 7 p.m. is also mentioned in the report but staff say the change would require further analysis. Currently on-street rates are in effect from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Staff believe the extension of paid time into evening hours could alleviate parking availability issues after working hours.
The report is scheduled to be presented to council on Thursday.
Photos - 2 are of parking spots being occupied by construction on Johnson Street. The first one is a parking spot being occupied by a shipping container.
