Train Whistling at Crossing in Langley City

Every so often, I see a request asking the City to do something to stop train whistling in our community. I understand this request as one of the busiest rail corridors in the country goes through Langley City. I also hear training whistling from time to time.

Back in 2004, Langley City and Canadian Pacific Railway (which operates the tracks through the City) signed a whistle cessation agreement. This agreement requires that, normally, when a train goes through the City, it should not sound its whistle at crossings. This process is regulated by Transport Canada. Even with a whistle cessation agreement in place, you will still hear train whistles in our community, as a railway crew will sound a whistle if they feel there is a safety concern.

Because of how sound travels due to certain times of the day and cloud cover, you might hear the train whistle from crossings that are outside of Langley City as well.

Safety is always a priority, so while the City has an official whistle cessation program, there will be occasions when train whistles sound in our community.

Population Growth Stalls, Transit Ridership Declines in Metro Vancouver in 2025

While normally TransLink’s Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation meets monthly, the first public meeting of the Mayors’ Council will happen on April 30th. The heavy lifting for the Mayors’ Council happened last year as we moved towards approving the 2025 Transportation Investment Plan; the next Investment Plan must be approved in early 2027. Currently, the focus is on advocating to the province and the federal governments to increase funding for transit in our region and start delivering that funding as soon as possible.

Last year was an interesting year for population growth in Metro Vancouver. While we typically seen a 2% growth rate, in 2025 there was essentially no population growth. Of course, this isn’t evenly distributed. The City of Vancouver saw about a 1% population decline, whereas typically high-growth areas like Surrey saw only a 2% growth rate.

Overall, the transit system experienced a 1.5% decline in transit journeys in 2025 compared to 2024. Bus ridership declined 2.5%, and Expo/Millennium lines declined 2.6%. Canada Line ridership increased 1.1%, SeaBus ridership increased 3.8%, HandyDART service increased 6%, and West Coast Express ridership increased 11.2%. Over 60% of transit journeys are by bus. TransLink attributes the decline to fewer young adults in our region, resulting from changes in federal immigration targets, young adults leaving Metro Vancouver, and a smaller overall Gen Z population compared to millennials.

When you look at subregions, the largest decline was in the South of Fraser, though transit ridership there is still significantly higher than before the pandemic.

Annual Ridership Growth (First Number) between 2024 - 2025 & Share of System-Wide Boardings (Second Number) by Sub-Region in 2025. Select the map to enlarge.

Population growth will likely return to a stable growth rate in the near future, and transit ridership will likely resume growth as a result. There is no indication that transit is in a permanent ridership decline.

SkyTrain Pile Driving Operating Hours

I’ve received a few emails from residents about thumping or pounding sounds in the evenings over the last few weeks in Langley City. This is due to SkyTrain guideway pile-driving work occurring in and around our community.

I can also hear pile-driving work at my home and at City Hall, and I know it can impact people’s quality of life.

For the most up-to-date information, questions, and concerns, please reach out to the SkyTrain project team at 1-844-815-6111 or surreylangleyskytrain@gov.bc.ca. As this is a provincial project, they are not subject to local government bylaws, including those regarding noise and construction site hours of operation.

As of this post, regular construction hours for the SkyTrain project are 7 am to 10 pm Monday through Saturday. Noisier work, such as pile driving, is occurring between noon and 9 pm. To minimize the noise, the SkyTrain project team is using various techniques to manage it, including vibrating portions of the guideway columns into the ground. A project of this size will, of course, have impacts during construction.

Pile driving work is expected to conclude in mid-2027.

Improving Accessibility on Langley City Sidewalks and Streets

While Langley City is currently developing an Accessibility Plan, the City has been working for some time to address physical barriers to access on our sidewalks and streets.

For as long as I’ve lived here, the City has also been slowly making all bus stops accessible. An accessible bus stop has sufficient width and depth to allow someone in a wheelchair to board and exit a bus. Currently, 98% of bus stops in the City are wheelchair accessible, one of the highest rates in Metro Vancouver; the City is looking into making the remaining stops accessible.

In most communities, you’ll see curb letdowns at intersections, which allow people with wheelchairs and other mobility devices the ability to cross a street. While curb letdowns are important, at an intersection with traffic lights or a flashing crosswalk, people also need to be able to push the crossing button. The City has also been working to make sure these buttons are accessible. The following is a recent change at Michaud Crescent and 200th Street to make the crossing button accessible.

I remember going on a day trip years ago with a friend of mine who uses a wheelchair. As I walked with him, it heightened my awareness of the small things that can create big barriers to people accessing our community independently.

Langley City’s new Transportation 2050 plan continues to address improving accessibility in our community, including bringing all curb letdowns to modern standards, getting the last 2% of bus stops accessible, completing the sidewalk network, ensuring more accessible parking on-street and in private development, and making other small but important changes, such as for accessing crossing buttons.

Have Your Say: TransLink New Transportation Plan for Surrey, Langley, White Rock, North Delta

When I first got involved in transit and urban planning advocacy, I remember going to the old, now demolished Days Inn hotel, which was just south of the King George SkyTrain Station. This was a few years before I started this blog. I remember we were in a planning workshop where they gave us tape segments that represented kilometres of bus, light rail, and SkyTrain service. While I don’t remember the exact number, we could exchange our SkyTrain segment for something like 4 light rail segments or 10 bus segments. I was really impressed by the process, and I remember seeing how the community workshops and feedback actually shaped the plan (of course, at the time we were disappointed it didn’t include reactivating the Interuban).

A woman looks at a transit map for the South of Fraser in 2007.

TransLink adopted the South of Fraser Area Transit Plan in 2007, and it ran until 2013. It is way overdue for an update.

A lot has changed since 2007, and I’m happy to see that TransLink is now working on a new South of Fraser East Area Transport Plan, which covers North Delta, Surrey, White Rock, Langley City, and the Township. The plan will guide transit and regional cycling, walking, and goods movement within these communities over the next 15 years.

TransLink is seeking your feedback as it gets this process underway. You can complete an online survey or attend an in-person event.

An event in Langley City takes place:

Date: Saturday, February 28th
Time: 10am to Noon
Location: Langley City Library Branch at Timms Community Centre

Please visit TransLink’s South of Fraser East Area Transport Plan webpage for more information and to stay up to date.

Exploring a Resident-Permit Parking Program in High-Demand Areas

Yesterday, I posted about proposed changes to on-street parking and parking in City-owned lots in Downtown Langley City to ensure parking availability to support businesses as part of Langley City’s Public Parking Strategy. This plan calls for introducing two-hour, four-hour, and expanded monthly long-term parking options in Downtown. Today, I wanted to touch on the proposal for on-street residential parking.

Currently, people can park their vehicles for up to 72 hours on all streets in Langley City that aren’t signed otherwise. The community has expressed concern about on-street parking in certain neighbourhoods. Research by the City shows that some streets have high demand for on-street parking, as indicated by the dark purple on the following map.

Typical on-street parking utilization on Saturday, the busiest night of the week for overnight parking. Select the map to enlarge.

As all residents have on-site parking, some reasons people choose on-street parking are that on-site parking is priced (e.g., rental buildings or a university), used for reasons other than parking (e.g., storage), or not suitable for someone's vehicle (e.g., a commercial van). Of course, visitors also use on-street parking, and some people may have many vehicles.

To fairly manage residential parking in areas with high demand, such as the dark purple areas, the City would explore implementing a resident-permit parking program. A resident-permit parking program would encourage households to use available off-street parking, re-evaluate whether using off-street parking for alternative uses (e.g., storage) is optimal, and address chronic spillover parking from major destinations (e.g., a university). There are still many things to consider if the City were to implement a resident-permit parking program in select areas. Further work is required.

There will be a further opportunity to provide feedback on the City's proposed Public Parking Strategy. Follow “Let's Chat, Langley City!” to stay up to date.

Parking in Downtown Langley City: 2-Hour, 4-Hour, and Long-Term

Last summer, I posted about the work the City is doing to improve on-street parking management in our Downtown, Douglas and Nicomekl Neighbourhoods. After seeking additional public feedback, the City has further refined a proposed new on-street parking management strategy.

One of the big changes is switching on-street parking in Downtown from 3 hours to 2 hours to encourage more parking turnover, which is good for most businesses. Some customers may need to stay for more than 2 hours, so the City is also planning to increase the parking time limit in City-owned lots from 3 hours to 4 hours. Finally, we know that many employees need a place to park. Monthly, long-term parking will be expanded to include select parking spots at the Timms Community Centre. The following map shows the proposed parking time-limits for the Downtown area. Missing are the on-street parking spots west of 203rd Street in Downtown. I asked that they be included in the final strategy.

Proposed changes to on-street parking and city-owned lot timing limits in Downtown Langley City. Select the map to enlarge.

This change to the time-parking is something that the City would do as soon as possible. In preparation for SkyTrain, the City will also continue studying paid parking. The earliest paid parking would be considered for implementation would be in 2029 to coincide with the opening of SkyTrain in our community. The City would use paid parking to increase turnover and availability of parking for businesses near SkyTrain stations and to manage commuter parking. Any profit from paid parking would be directly reinvested in Downtown.

Other short-term projects to enhance the parking experience in Downtown include improving wayfinding, especially to City-owned lots, and modernizing and enhancing parking enforcement. In the longer-term, the City would look to implement real-time parking availability like in Kelowna, so people would know exactly where parking is available, either through an app or on-street digital displays.

Finally, the City will look to secure additional off-street public parking near SkyTrain stations as part of redevelopment projects.

Tomorrow, I’ll post about the recommendations for residential parking.

Langley-Maple Ridge Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Configuration Open House

Earlier this week, I posted about TransLink’s planning work for a new Bus Rapid Transit line connecting from the Willowbrook Mall area, along 200th Street, and up to Haney in Maple Ridge. Bus Rapid Transit is similar to RapidBus, but with dedicated bus lanes to prevent it from getting stuck in traffic.

TransLink is hosting a series of in-person open houses, including in Langley City. You can drop in anytime and stay for as little or as long as you want.

The details are as follows:
Date: Sunday, February 1st
Time: Noon – 4pm
Location: Timms Community Centre (20399 Douglas Crescent)

According to TransLink, you can “learn more about the proposed Langley-Haney Place Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. Meet the project team, ask questions, and share your feedback on program features and route options.”

For a list of other open houses for this BRT, please visit TransLink’s website.

Provide Feedback on Langley-Maple Ridge Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Configuration

As part of last year’s approved TransLink’s 2025 Investment Plan, the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation approved advancing detailed planning for two new bus rapid transit lines in the South of Fraser along King George Boulevard and between Haney and Willowbrook.

We currently don’t have bus rapid transit in Metro Vancouver, but the key feature is that buses travel in dedicated lanes and have priority at intersections. It shares other features similar to RapidBus.

Between the SkyTrain expansion and new bus rapid transit lines, the following map shows the proposed future state of rapid transit South of the Fraser and in Maple Ridge.

Map of future rapid transit lines in the South of Fraser and Maple Ridge. Select the map to enlarge.

Bus rapid transit between Willowbrook SkyTrain Station and Carvolth Exchange will take between 16 and 18 minutes, faster than driving during peak periods.

Currently, TransLink is gathering feedback on the proposed travel lane reconfiguration to support bus rapid transit and is providing more information about the bus rapid transit corridors. You can visit their bus rapid transit webpage to take a survey, learn more about the corridors, and find out when and where in-person engagement opportunities are occurring.

While bus rapid transit is not running on Langley City roads, the Willowbrook Mall area is partially in the City. It will also hopefully improve access to and from the rest of Langley City, depending on how well it integrates with the local bus network.

Langley City’s New “Transportation 2050” Plan - High Priority Projects

Langley City’s last long-term transportation plan has been in place since 2014. Over the last several years, the City has been working on creating a new long-term transportation plan titled “Transportation 2050.”

The overall vision of the plan “is to provide a multi-modal transportation strategy to guide transportation policy and investments over the next 25 years.” Multi-modal means considering all forms of travel, such as walking, rolling, cycling, scootering, taking transit, and driving. It also considers goods movement.

Yesterday, City staff provided a final opportunity for Council to provide input on the proposed new long-term plan before formal consideration of adopting it as our new transportation strategy at an upcoming Council meeting.

Over the next decade, the following map identifies the high-priority transportation projects to complete.

Proposed high-priority transportation projects to be completed over the new decade. Select the map to enlarge.

For the high-priority road improvements, they are primarily focused on intersection improvements, such as ensuring turn lanes and bus queue-jump lanes. 62nd Avenue is identified for widening to four lanes. As the north of the centre line of 62nd is in the Township of Langley, this project must be completed in partnership with that municipality.

Council provided additional feedback on the plan, including a request for greater focus on creating slow streets and addressing new e-mobility devices, such as kick scooters. Council also asked for consideration of adding 208th Street to the regional major road network, given future growth in Brookswood. This will allow us access to regional funding when opportunities arise.

For more information, please read the draft “Transportation 2050” plan. City staff will now put the finishing touches on the plan for Council's formal consideration shortly.

TransLink Mayors’ Council - What’s Next for Transit Expansion

Leading up to April of last year was pretty intense as a member of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, which is one of the two decision-making bodies for TransLink. We had to work towards a regional solution to keep transit services running, expand bus service to meet growing demand, and continue investing in our regional road network. As a regional governing body, we reached consensus on the ultimately approved 2025 TransLink Investment Plan, which keeps TransLink’s operations fully funded through 2027.

Since the end of April, the work of the Mayors’ Council has slowed as the next step toward delivering additional transit service, such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Langley, depends on additional federal and provincial dollars. The federal government has played a significant role in public transit funding. Between 2016 and today, they’ve provided $4.1 billion (in 2025 dollars). Over the next decade, they are expected to deliver about $2.1 billion, which is a decrease in funding. We actually need more funding from the feds, not less, over the next decade.

As Mayors in Metro Vancouver, we have been lobbying the feds to increase transit funding. For example, in the fall, Mayor Linda Buchanan and I went to Ottawa on behalf of the TransLink Mayors' Council for this.

While folks have been talking about SkyTrain expansion to UBC, the North Shore, and BRTs everywhere, without federal and provincial support, they will remain just lines on a map.

Our collective efforts for transit at this point really need to be focused on securing long-term, stable transit funding commitments from the feds and the province, and presenting our transit needs as a package for Metro Vancouver, not one-off projects. This will take a lot of work and coordination, but it is the only path forward to continue providing much-needed transit service expansion for our region. I also think it is possible because I have seen how unified we can be as a region.

Langley City’s Commitments to Ensure SkyTrain Extension Success

As part of the Surrey Langley SkyTrain extension, all municipalities along the alignment and the province signed Supportive Policy Agreements (SPA) with TransLink. These agreements ensure cross-governmental collaboration and accountability, leading to the best possible outcomes for this significant infrastructure project. TransLink creates an annual report that shows the progress towards meeting the objectives in the SPA. TransLink publicly presented this report to the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation in December.

Langley City’s high-level contributions to the SPA in 2025 were:

• Updating the Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw to support creating a transit-friends community.
• Continue work on the Glover Road Innovation District Plan, which is intended to support our Food Tech Hub strategy and create good jobs near the SkyTrain.
• Continue work on a new Transportation Plan to support connecting people to SkyTrain, including by walking and cycling, and creating a safe and reliable local street network.
• Continue work on a Parking Strategy to manage on-street parking demand near SkyTrain stations and within transit-oriented areas.

The Fraser Highway One-Way Revitalization Project was highlighted as a significant project showing the City’s commitment to “the delivery of key pedestrian and public realm improvements” to support the SkyTrain extension to our community.

There are other objectives for Langley City in the SPA that are either completed or were not planned to start in 2025. Langley City is tracking all green for meeting our objectives, except for the new Transportation Plan, which has slipped from an estimated completion in 2025 to 2026.

A First Look at the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station Construction Site

The future end (or start) of the Expo Line in Langley City. Select the image to enlarge.

As you may know, I am a bit of a transit nerd, so I was absolutely thrilled when the folks from Transportation Investment Corporation invited me for a tour of the Langley City Centre Station construction site. I had no choice but to say yes.

I was having a good look around the construction site with our tour guides. Select the image to enlarge.

It was an extremely rainy day yesterday, but even in the pouring rain, ironworkers were still busy at work.

Ironworkers are building columns to support the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station. Select the image to enlarge.

One thing I learned from the tour is that much of the infrastructure supporting the SkyTrain stations and guideway is underground. For example, in the Serpentine River valley, they have to drive pilings down 100 metres (about the same height as a 30-storey building) to reach firm ground. Langley City is also on mucky ground, so they have to pile-drive down to about 30 metres (about 9 stories).

The station columns themselves are also connected together below ground to prevent them from shifting or twisting.

The interconnected columns for the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station. Select the image to enlarge.

Work is currently underway on Fraser Highway to support the SkyTrain in Langley City. They are running the power ducting and cabling to support the SkyTrain. This work is expected to be finished next summer. Next year, you will start to see sections of guideway along Industrial Avenue in Langley City. The first guideway section will be near 203rd Street and on the old ICBC site at Fraser Highway and Production Way.

There will be impacts on travel patterns, and you may notice vibrations from pile driving as guideway construction kicks into high gear. To stay up to date on construction, you can sign up for email notifications on the project’s website.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime project in Langley City, and it will have a profound impact on our community by connecting people to more opportunities. For the City’s part, we have been preparing for SkyTrain’s arrival for close to a decade; we will be ready for opening day.

Have Your Say on On-Street Parking in Apartment and Townhouse Areas. City Exploring Resident Only and Permit Parking.

As I’ve been posting about over the last year, Langley City staff are working on an updated public parking strategy. This strategy focuses on public parking lots and on-street parking within Downtown Langley and residential parking north of the Nicomekl River in apartment and townhouse areas.

Earlier this year, the City sought feedback from residents about parking in Downtown Langley City when accessing shops and services. In the summer, the City presented its findings from that survey and parking utilization rates, including for on-street parking in apartment and townhouse areas. One of the next steps identified was to ask the community how they would like to manage on-street parking in these areas.

Options include:

• Maintaining the status quo
• Introducing resident-only parking, where vehicles must be registered to an address within the block based on their ICBC insurance
• Permit parking for residents, where permit holders can park their vehicle in their permit area at all times. In permit areas where there may be high demand for non-residents, time-limited parking for anyone could also be provided

The City would like your feedback. Please visit Let’s Chat, Langley City, and complete the Residential Parking Survey. The survey runs until October 31st. After you complete the survey, you’ll have the option to enter into a draw to win a $50 VISA gift card.

While the survey is open to everyone, if you do live in the study area, I highly encourage you to complete the survey.

Transit Advocacy in Ottawa for TransLink Mayors’ Council: Day 2

Transit is a key to making life affordable, reducing congestion, and growing the economy, allowing people more access to jobs and opportunity.

Mayor Linda Buchanan (from the City of North Vancouver) and I are in Ottawa for two days, advocating for increased transit funding for Metro Vancouver on behalf of the TransLink Mayors’ Council. This advocacy includes funding for enhanced bus service, bus rapid transit, and rapid transit.

Mayor Buchanan delivered the keynote address and call to action around transit funding at the Canadian Urban Transit Association Policy Forum, noting that you cannot build housing without building transit, and that we need the federal government to come to the table, as transit is key to meeting their housing objectives and strengthening the Canadian economy.

Later in the day, on a panel, I spoke about the importance of building grassroots support for improving transit, as that is the only way to attract local, provincial, and federal dollars to expand our systems to meet our growing needs.

We then met with MP Taleeb Noormohamed, MP Wade Grant, and MP Jake Sawatzky to discuss a “Team BC” approach to ensuring the federal government invests in transit for our province and Metro Vancouver.

Transit Advocacy in Ottawa for TransLink Mayors’ Council: Day 1

Transit is a key to making life affordable, reducing congestion, and growing the economy, allowing people more access to jobs and opportunity.

Yesturday and today, Mayor Linda Buchanan and I are in Ottawa on behalf of the TransLink Mayors' Council advocating for increased transit funding for Metro Vancouver. This advocacy includes funding for enhanced bus service, BRT, and rapid transit.

Today, Mayor Buchanan will also deliver the keynote address at the Canadian Urban Transit Association Policy Forum, and I will be on the panel “Funding the Future of Canadian Transit.” Then more advocacy to MPs!

Walking and Transit Trips Up in Langley City. Exploring How People Get Around in Metro Vancouver.

When people examine how folks move around in our region, they typically refer to data from Statistics Canada. Unfortunately, this data only examines how people travel to their place of work. This is why, approximately every half-decade, TransLink commissions trip diaries, which provide a sample of all trip types people take throughout Metro Vancouver.

Metro Vancouver Regional District staff have recently created maps to look at the changes between TransLink’s 2017 and 2023 trip diaries for walking and transit trips.

With the exception of West Vancouver, walking trips are up throughout the region. Port Moody, Pitt Meadows, and Langley City have all seen a doubling of walking trips between 2017 and 2023. In Langley City, approximately 14% of all trips originating in Langley City were made on foot in 2023. For trips that stayed within Langley City, about 32% were walking trips.

Change in the number of walking trips between 2017 and 2023 across the region. Select the map to enlarge.

While overall transit ridership remained flat between 2017 and 2023, the following map shows that there has generally been a decline in transit trips in the western part of our region, whereas in the eastern part of our region, transit trips are significantly up. In fact, Langley City saw the largest growth in transit trips within the region between 2017 and 2023. In 2023, approximately 3% of all trips originating in Langley City were made by transit.

Change in the number of trips made on transit between 2017 and 2023. Select the map to enlarge.

In Metro Vancouver, the number of overall trips made by bike increased, while trips by automobile decreased between 2017 and 2023. For more information, please visit TransLink’s 2023 Trip Diary dashboard.

Parking in Downtown Langley City and North of the Nicomekl: More Options (2-Hour, 4-Hour, All-Day) in Downtown. Better Wayfinding. Residential Permit Parking.

This is the final post in my three-part series about Langley City’s on-street parking and public parking lot management strategy. Part one discussed the public feedback received regarding parking, and part two examined parking demand by block and street. Today’s post examines proposed actions to help manage parking north of the Nickomekl River and in our Downtown.

In our Downtown, based on feedback and parking demand, we need to shift longer-term parking from high-demand areas, such as on-street parking along the Fraser Highway One-Way, to areas with extra supply, like the City-owned parking lots around the Fraser Highway One-Way.

The following map illustrates the proposed changes to parking times, with shorter 2-hour parking on most streets and 4-hour parking in public parking lots.

Proposed changes to the on-street and public parking lots time limits. Select the map to enlarge.

The proposed changes also include rolling out shorter-term parking/loading spaces (30 minutes or less).

Langley City currently provides a limited number of reserved monthly parking spaces for rent in our public parking lots. The proposed changes include expanding the number of these spaces for people who work in our Downtown.

In the future, the City may consider implementing paid parking in high-demand areas to help manage parking turnover, if needed, once SkyTrain is operational. Paid downtown on-street parking isn’t proposed for implementation at this time. The City will explore securing on-site public parking as part of redevelopment projects near our two SkyTrian stations.

Finding our public parking lots is a challenge even for locals, so one of the big moves will be to develop and implement better public parking wayfinding.

For areas outside of our Downtown, north of the Nickomekl River, the City is exploring on-street permit parking in high-demand locations to help ensure that people can fairly share limited on-street parking spaces. Consultation will take place with the community regarding residential permit parking this fall.

To help ensure that people park appropriately, the City will also modernize its parking enforcement. An example includes implementing automated license plate readers for bylaw staff.

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.

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.