Parking in Downtown Langley City and North of the Nicomekl: What We Heard.

With population growth, the arrival of SkyTrain, and thriving commercial areas, Langley City is developing an on-street and public lot parking management strategy for areas north of the Nicomekl River, with a focus on the Downtown Area.

Over the last year, the strategy development team has been gathering data, including on-street parking utilization rates and community feedback. Based on the data and feedback, they have developed a draft set of recommendations, which will be further refined over the coming months. However, before I get to the recommendations, I would like to share some of the feedback the team received.

In Langley City’s downtown area, there are two key findings that I would like to highlight. The first finding is that people who are not local to Langley City (approximately one-third of those who park downtown) are more likely to be dissatisfied with their parking experience.

Parking satisfaction among downtown parkers by typical parking duration and place of residence. Select chart to enlarge.

While parking dissatisfaction rates are low, they increase to 40% for individuals who want to park for more than six hours. This makes a lot of sense, as the City currently has only 3 hours of time-limited on-street parking and limited monthly public paid parking in our downtown area.

Parking satisfaction among downtown parkers by typical parking duration. Select image to enlarge.

Some of the top recommendations from the feedback the project team received included providing more dedicated medium- and long-term parking options (greater than three hours) in the downtown area and improving parking wayfinding, including to City-owned parking lots.

Looking at residential parking north of the Nicomekl River, on-street parking dissatisfaction rates are low; however, they increase for households with two or more vehicles.

Parking satisfaction in residential areas among residents by vehicle ownership. Select image to enlarge.

Tomorrow, I will continue posting about Langley City’s parking management strategy, looking at overall parking utilization rates.