Parking in Downtown Langley City and North of the Nicomekl: Street By Street Peak Utilization

This is part two of a three-part series about Langley City’s on-street parking and public parking lot management strategy for areas north of the Nicomekl River. Part one examined the feedback the City received about people’s parking experiences and highlighted key findings from that feedback. This post focuses on parking utilization rates by block or corridor in our downtown and primarily residential areas north of the Nicomekl River.

We all recognize that land is valuable and that on-street parking must be balanced with other uses, such as loading zones, fire safety, streetside patios, and transit lanes. The golden rule for effective on-street parking is to maintain a utilization rate of around 85%. This means in each block, there should be one or two free spots, which prevents people from having to circle around. This 85% metric originates from the extensive research of the late Donald Shoup, as outlined in his seminal book, “The High Cost of Free Parking.”

The following map shows the typical peak parking utilization rate in Downtown Langley City.

Map showing typical weekday peak parking demand in Downtown Langley City. Select the map to enlarge.

The key finding for Downtown Langley City is that there is sufficient parking availability, both on-street and in public parking lots, but there is excessive demand in specific areas. For example, the Fraser Highway One-way section has excessive demand for on-street parking, even while the free public parking lots at City Hall and on the east end of the One-way have sufficient capacity.

The following map shows the typical peak parking demand for areas outside of Downtown Langley City, but north of the Nicomekl River.

Map showing typical peak evening demand in neighborhoods north of the Nicomekl River, excluding Downtown. Select the map to enlarge.

My key observation is that neighborhoods with a significant amount of townhouses that have fully enclosed parking tend to have higher on-street parking demand, including my own neighborhood (I live on the very west side of 55A Avenue). Anniodately, I see some of my neighbourhood's garages mostly filled with everything but a vehicle. When I lived in an apartment, parking was actively managed to ensure that only vehicles were in assigned parking spots.

Based on the feedback people provided and the observed parking utilization rates, the parking study team is proposing a set of draft recommendations, which I will share in part three of this series.

As a note, the maps show the times of day/day of the week with the highest typical demand.