top of page

Town of Goderich conducts parking study ahead of downtown reconstruction project


According to data from surveys taken during the summer, there is adequate parking available in the downtown core of Goderich. Some recommendations to improve the quality of parking have been made by BM Ross, which have been approved by Goderich Council.
According to data from surveys taken during the summer, there is adequate parking available in the downtown core of Goderich. Some recommendations to improve the quality of parking have been made by BM Ross, which have been approved by Goderich Council.


Data obtained from a parking study has provided Town Staff and Goderich Town Council details on parking availability and usage in the downtown core of Goderich.

Data from the study serves as critical baseline information to help alleviate the effect the downtown infrastructure reconstruction project will have on parking.

The study was initiated in July 2024 to understand the perception of parking availability in the Town of Goderich.

A parking survey was conducted by BM Ross in July and August, including two Saturdays, as well as an online public survey and a business survey to identify the parking needs and availability of the town.

The study aimed to identify the needs of the public and downtown business community, while making recommendations related to parking needs for further studies.

According to the report to council by Lisa Courtney of BM Ross, the study focused on parking availability within the downtown core.

This included all on-street, painted spaces, and parking lots available for public use, established by an agreement with private owners. That includes Knox Presbyterian Church Lot, Livery Theatre Parking Lot, Service Ontario and Troyan and Fincher Parking Lot, and Lighthouse Street Parking Lot.

With the downtown reconstruction project, parking will change to wider, angle parking spots, despite some hesitancy from respondents on the changes coming to downtown.

“The big thing with the size of our parking width right now, is people park on the white lines, so you’re actually losing another parking spot when that happens,” explained Mayor Trevor Bazinet.

“So hopefully by creating wider spaces, standardized spaces at that, we won’t run into that issue.”

Additionally, the new parking lot by the Legion will offer another 42 spaces to the downtown core.

From the study, it was concluded that currently there are 698 parking spaces available in the downtown core. The count excluded spaces utilized for patios, dumpsters, or marked private.

From the 698 spaces, 166 were located around Courthouse Square, with 112 angle spaces and 54 parallel spaces.

The study also revealed that there are 14 accessible parking spaces, and four parking lots within the downtown core supplying another 89 spaces.

For each survey day, the data was analysed to determine the timing and peak use. According to data, the greatest demand for parking in the downtown area was between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

During the busiest hour range, parking utilization data showed a range of 56 per cent to 74 per cent. According to the report, 85 per cent utilization is considered a threshold, and the data from the survey indicates that throughout the downtown area, there is sufficient parking.

According to data from the survey, there was little variation in parking duration – how long a vehicle occupies a space - across the different days of the week.

Over 65 per cent of vehicles were parked for less than an hour.

As mentioned, a public survey and a business survey were also conducted.

There were 916 responses to the online survey, and 90 per cent of respondents indicated their primary reason or parking in the downtown core is shopping and accessing businesses and services. Only 42 per cent of respondents indicated they parked downtown to attend events, and 10 per cent due to employment.

Majority of respondents indicated they park for 20 minutes to one hour.

According to responses in the public survey, most common suggestions for improvement areas included wider spaces, more spaces, marking lanes, and encouraging employees not to park on the Square.

In connection, results from the business survey revealed that majority of businesses indicated their employees already use private lots and encourage their employees not to park on the Square.

Based on data and comments, the report to council recommended a few ideas to improve parking availability within the Town of Goderich ahead of the downtown reconstruction project.

Among the recommendations, some were to improve signage for public parking, add information to the town’s website, designate employee parking areas, avoid road closures on streets that access parking lots, and consider a time limit on outer Courthouse Square parking spots.

Council approved the recommendations by BM Ross.

Comments


bottom of page