New on-street parking along Eighth Street S.W. corridor

This week The City will be introducing on-street parking along the 8 Street S.W. corridor between 12 and 17 Avenues S.W.

49 short-term parking spaces will be available on weekdays during off-peak hours, weekends and holidays. The parking spaces will be established as two hour ParkPlus zones and will require payment Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

These new parking spaces are being created as part of The City’s 8 Street S.W. Corridor Public Realm Master Plan. The plan’s vision is to make Eighth street a more economically vibrant business and retail zone, with improved pedestrian connections between 17 Avenue S.W. and the Downtown Core as well as providing more short term parking in the area to support businesses. The first construction phase of the vision was the Eighth Street Underpass Enhancement, which is nearing completion. This new parking serves as a part of the functional change proposed on the corridor, as shown in the Master Plan.

The parking zone will: 1) provide convenient access to adjacent businesses and residential areas; 2) support a safer and more comfortable pedestrian environment by creating a buffer zone between pedestrians and faster moving traffic and; 3) not likely have any impact on rush hour traffic as it is only available during off-peak hours.

Relevant Links:

• Centre City Plan
• Centre City Underpass Guidelines
• 8 Street Corridor Public Realm Master Plan
• Centre City Mobility Plan (2010)

Help make Spring Clean-Up a sweeping success

The City’s annual Spring Clean-up program kicked off on April 3, with some big changes to the program this year.

Until June 1, crews will be out sweeping up dirt and debris leftover from winter on over 15,000 lane kilometres of road across Calgary. When crews sweep up gravel and debris, it keeps it out of the air and our storm drain systems. Clean streets are also safer for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.

During pre-sweeping in March, crews were able to complete a significant amount of sweeping due to warm and dry weather conditions. Sweeping has continued successfully throughout April as well.

Residents looking for more information about the program can visit Calgary.ca/sweep to read the answers to some frequently asked questions. Here are a few we’ve heard so far:

How can I find out when crews will be sweeping my street?

This year, crews are sweeping 7 days/week, an increase from the previous schedule of 4 days/week. To find out when sweepers will be on your street, watch for the large green community sweeping signs posted in your area and look up your address at Calgary.ca/sweep.

What are the new parking restrictions in place this year?

All communities are now under parking restrictions when streets are being swept. When the large green community signs (pictured) are placed around your community, a parking ban is in effect for the entire community. Any vehicles left on the road at this time are at risk of receiving a ticket, but will not be towed. For this reason, crews will have to sweep around these vehicles, reducing the effectiveness of the sweeping program.

Why didn’t the vehicles left on my street receive a ticket or tow?

If the small “No Parking” signs are placed every few metres along your street, vehicles will be ticketed and towed. In areas where the green community signs are placed, but the small “No Parking’ signs are not, towing will not occur.

Although the Calgary Parking Authority is enforcing tickets when community signs are out, not every neighbourhood can be attended to. Crews typically sweep in five different areas of Calgary every day for two months, so not every vehicle can be ticketed and/or towed over this period of time.

What do I do if street cleaning falls on garbage collection day?

If you have front street collection, place your blue and black carts on the sidewalk or grass boulevard next to the curb. Once street cleaning is complete, you can put your carts out as normal on collection day.

For more Spring Clean-up news and updates, follow @yyctransport on Twitter.

New car2go microstalls coming to Calgary

Starting tomorrow, Calgarians will see some innovative new parking stalls pop up in and around Calgary’s downtown core. In total, 150 car2go microstalls will be made available to the car-sharing company’s members in 2016.

The spots will be located mostly in the downtown core and the Beltline and can be found on certain street corners and other curb space where a regular sized car would not fit. Installation for these stalls begins Friday, January 22 and will be officially rolled out over the next few months.

The City’s Traffic division conducted safety reviews at each microstall location to ensure that all traffic engineering and safety standards were met before the installation of each stall. The height and width of car2go smart cars allows motorists to still see oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

“Over 2015, we explored solutions to create hundreds of additional parking spots downtown, including such measures as angled parking, off-peak parking and designated stalls for small car-share vehicles,” Traffic engineer, Yeats Wong said. “Our goal is to optimize the space we have to provide Calgarians with more on-street parking options in the core.”

Car-sharing helps reduce the strain on Calgary’s parking infrastructure. The shared vehicles are small and eco-friendly and reduce the number of individual, full-sized vehicles in the core. The goal for this pilot project is to open up more spots for regular-sized cars by providing space specifically for car2go smart cars where regular sized cars won’t fit.

After working with car2go and the Calgary Parking Authority, a parking agreement between car2go and The City was finalized late last year.  Only registered microcars with a valid permit are allowed to use the new microstalls. So far, only two-door car2go vehicles have been issued these permits. However, this doesn’t mean that car2go users can only park in these new microstalls. They are encouraged to use them if they are available but will still be allowed to park in areas where on-street parking is legal.

“At The City we’re always looking at new, innovative solutions to make it easier for Calgarians to get around,” Wong said. “Data collected from this pilot will provide us with more information for future car-share and commercial parking policies.”

Lines for these stalls were painted last year. Once signage has been installed at a microstall location, two-door car2go vehicles will be able to park on-street in these microstalls.