Parking in Waterloo Region

[mpd618]

The Kitchener market is no different. Their main metric is to maximize the number of shoppers there. If the garage is full they can do two things: (1) nothing as it is today and let the overflow people deal with it or (2) build more parking.

I go to the market every so often and I find (1) quite reasonable. About half the time I get free parking in the building, the rest I pay at any of the paid parking lots nearby or park on the street.

Or they can charge just enough for the garage parking so that everyone who wants to get parking in the garage can always do so and not need to circle or get stuck in the associated traffic. There's plenty of parking in the vicinity, notably at Market Square as well as on street. The problem is that there is a relatively small amount of premium parking that is given away for free.

As for transit not being viable due to snow, I'd think parking demand should be lower at the market in the winter anyway, so there's less need to shift the balance to other modes.