There’s parking downtown, you just need to be willing to pay for it and walk a few blocks.
Also, a 90-minute limit is just not long enough.
Those were the two themes that emerged from comments after the Citizen posted a story about the City of Duncan looking at a pilot program reducing free-parking from three hours to an hour and a half on key city streets.
It turns out people have a lot to say about parking.
“Way too short,” wrote Joanna Kitt in response to the news. “When I’m downtown I like to take my time and often attend appointments more than an hour long. All this will do is make me stress about getting back to the car in time!”
There’s an easy solution for that, Shirley Imada noted. While in favour of a two-hour limit, she said 90 minutes isn’t enough time for lunch, but “I suppose the ones planning on having a gab with friends (I do at times) could go to pay parking. The $2 is less than a cup of coffee,” she wrote.
Jacob Teufel thinks the switch to 90 minutes is “great news” and he was backed by more than a dozen likers.
“This is going to make it hard for all the people who go to work and continually move their cars so [as] not to get ticketed. Maybe they will have to park at the mound and spend the loonie for twelve hours. All those who are saying there is no parking, I call BS. The mound is always empty. Even if you park at the mall, it is only three blocks to downtown. You walk that in Victoria after paying $15 for a parkade, but wont do it for free in Duncan. Man, humans are weird.”
Evon Smith had a situation many others in the region share.
“I share a car…so what happens if I use my time and then later in the day the other person goes for their shopping…what then? There will be a fight I can tell you that for sure…”
Sometimes it’s just not practical to park farther away, some argued.
“Often there are multiple stops being made while downtown and when I’m walking back and forth with my kids the last thing I want is to be stressed about parking time,” said Kerry Mullett.
Danielle Kornet agreed.
“So what happens when my doctor is over a hour late?” she wondered. “I have to leave and try and find somewhere else to park? Would not really enjoy doing that with my three year old and a new baby in the fall.”
Lena Williams was blunt.
“I however can admit that I don’t want to carry and walk with a brief case, laptop, lunch bag and purse to the other side of town,” she wrote. “My office has its own designated lot which is often full of vehicles that don’t belong to those paying rent for the space or the clients they serve.”
Holly Baron summed it up, echoing others who believe the move is bad for business downtown.
“90 minutes!!!! Are you kidding me ?!? Might as well skip downtown Duncan all together,” she wrote.
What do you think?
A nail in the coffin for downtown business or the spark that’s needed to increase turnaround time for local merchants to welcome shoppers and tourists? Let us know!