Parking in Waterloo Region

[Coke6pk]

For the record, I see little to no difference between an SUV with automated cameras recording plate numbers and an enforcement agent walking along and recording plate numbers by hand. It's just that the former is massively more efficient.

THIS.

I still work in law enforcement, and I have tons of notebooks and written reports.  Some are in evidence, some are stored in my locker.  All technically belong to my employer (which is dependent on the government of the day).  I have detailed personal information (not just licence plates) that are also being held long term, and no one cares.  But licence plates for 24 hours *is* an issue?

At least with the automated system, non enforcement info will be deleted.  For the old system, non-enforcement info would be in the same paperwork as enforcement stuff, and therefore never destroyed.  [NOTE: before the handheld computers we didn't write down licence plates, so don't start fretting about giant lists of plates down at the by-law office! ]

Coke

[SammyOES2]

"I have detailed personal information (not just licence plates) that are also being held long term, and no one cares."

I don't know the context obviously, but there's a difference between people being ignorant of something and not caring about something.

[Coke6pk]

The context was people bring up "the world is falling" if the government uses technology to record information, forgetting it (gov't) has been recording stuff for eons and no one thinks twice about the storage of that "data". I apologize if my "no one cares" was misleading, but the care factor is definitely near non-existent.

Coke

[SammyOES2]

Coke, in all honesty, I'm not sure you appreciate the vast difference in scale between whats recorded now and what was recorded in the past as well as the huge improvements in technology and algorithms that increases, by many orders of magnitude, the 'usefulness' of that data.

[Coke6pk]

Coke, in all honesty, I'm not sure you appreciate the vast difference in scale between whats recorded now and what was recorded in the past as well as the huge improvements in technology and algorithms that increases, by many orders of magnitude, the 'usefulness' of that data.

Agreed.  I know data is a big business, and the way of reaping it in has evolved greatly.  From my law-enforcement perspective, I am solely referring to the collection of information for the purposes of law enforcement.  If that data was used by the government for "other" purposes, I could see the complaints being valid, but when a by-law unit collects licence plate info (which is where this conversation began) for the sole purpose of writing tickets on cars illegally parked, I still see very little cause for concern no matter how long they hold the info (so same day is generous).

Coke

[tomh009]

Street parking on Benton (between St George and Courtland) is no more: bylaw enforcement was having a field day with all the cars there.

Has anyone observed any other streets where street parking has disappeared recently? Or is Benton an isolated incident?

[Canard]

Oh wow, like across from the Arrow Lofts?

Before I was really into biking, this is where I used to park to check out LRT construction in the area.

[panamaniac]

Street parking on Benton (between St George and Courtland) is no more: bylaw enforcement was having a field day with all the cars there.

Has anyone observed any other streets where street parking has disappeared recently?  Or is Benton an isolated incident?

What an odd place to eliminate parking.  What's the thinking, I wonder?

[tomh009]

Oh wow, like across from the Arrow Lofts?

That's right.  Lots of people have been using the street parking (and didn't notice the new signs) so there were a lot of surprise gifts on the windshields.

[Markster]

It seems like a waste of asphalt to eliminate parking before giving the road a diet. Benton is criminally overbuilt, we should at least use what we can.

My guess is that drivers complained about all the people crossing Benton getting to and from the cars. "safety" and all that.

Having just had a long vacation in California, where mostly-free 24h street parking is a god-given right on 90% of all roads, it is a bit of a shock coming back to our polar-opposite mindset.

[danbrotherston]

It seems like a waste of asphalt to eliminate parking before giving the road a diet.  Benton is criminally overbuilt, we should at least use what we can.

My guess is that drivers complained about all the people crossing Benton getting to and from the cars. "safety" and all that.

Having just had a long vacation in California, where mostly-free 24h street parking is a god-given right on 90% of all roads, it is a bit of a shock coming back to our polar-opposite mindset.

I too was shocked in California when I visited a friends neighbourhood and saw bungalows with 4-6 cars parked in front, 2-3 in the driveway and 2-3 on the road.  The whole neighbourhood felt so crowded and choked, it was extremely unpleasant.  I am very happy that we don't have the same thing here.

As for parking, it probably makes sense to continue parking, but that road is desperately in need of a diet.  It's ridiculous.

[tomh009]

If they are about to put bike paths on Benton (or something else similar), then the parking restriction makes sense. But I don't see that in the region's 2017 plans.

[MidTowner]

I wouldn't say we have a "polar-opposite mindset." We may not be as bad as some places in terms of expecting and demanding other people to fund our free-of-charge parking on streets, but most people around here feel entitled to it, and complain loudly when it's denied.

You're right about Benton, though: there is no good reason for that stretch of four lanes. Like the similar stretch of Union mentioned elsewhere, it's completely pointless. Until the road is normalized, letting motorists leave their cars on it is in fact a cheap way to slow it down a bit.

[Markster]

I wouldn't say we have a "polar-opposite mindset." We may not be as bad as some places in terms of expecting and demanding other people to fund our free-of-charge parking on streets, but most people around here feel entitled to it, and complain loudly when it's denied.

By "mindset", I refer to the mindset of our parking regulations and road construction. Roads here are mostly for moving cars at maximum speed. Parking is allowed, on side streets, if it fits, maybe.

In all my travels, I have not personally experienced more restrictive parking than we have here.
The bans on overnight parking in Kitchener and Waterloo.
There is almost universally no parking on arterials (save for grandfathered street parking on King St in Downtown and Uptown) I was shocked when I learned parking was allowed on Benton, because it's just so unusual here.
No Parking zones are liberally sprinkled through residential areas.

It's no wonder that students move into the Northdale neighbourhood, and are surprised when they can't find a parking space. Most cities allow street parking, and that generally serves as a buffer for when a building's own parking is overloaded. Waterloo is the odd one out.

[danbrotherston]

I wouldn't say we have a "polar-opposite mindset." We may not be as bad as some places in terms of expecting and demanding other people to fund our free-of-charge parking on streets, but most people around here feel entitled to it, and complain loudly when it's denied.

By "mindset", I refer to the mindset of our parking regulations and road construction.  Roads here are mostly for moving cars at maximum speed. Parking is allowed, on side streets, if it fits, maybe.

In all my travels, I have not personally experienced more restrictive parking than we have here.
The bans on overnight parking in Kitchener and Waterloo.
There is almost universally no parking on arterials (save for grandfathered street parking on King St in Downtown and Uptown) I was shocked when I learned parking was allowed on Benton, because it's just so unusual here.
No Parking zones are liberally sprinkled through residential areas.

It's no wonder that students move into the Northdale neighbourhood, and are surprised when they can't find a parking space.  Most cities allow street parking, and that generally serves as a buffer for when a building's own parking is overloaded.  Waterloo is the odd one out.

This may be how it is used, but this is fundamentally wrong, public space should not be used for storage of private property.   Until I can use the parking space in front of my house to store a fridge, I shouldn't be able to use it to store a car.

But I wouldn't think this would be an issue in Canada, or anywhere it snows a lot for that matter.  Are overnight bans not common in the winter for plowing.  London has this as well.