As of Thursday, September 1, there will be major changes to the way transit users park in Park and Ride lots at four LRT stations.
Starting Thursday, the number of reserved, paid stalls will increase, the cost of those reserved stalls increases to $50 per month, and later in the fall, some hourly paid parking meters will be added.
The four stations where the changes will take place are Belvedere, Century Park, Clareview and Stadium LRT Stations.
At Century Park, 75 percent of the stalls will be reserved, and the City said LRT users are encouraged to carpool, park at bus-only transit centres where free parking is offered, or take the bus to the LRT station.
However, fewer parking spots will be changed at the other three stations.
“So Clareview, Stadium and Belvedere, we’re not going to be at 75 percent because we don’t have the demand for reserve stalls there, we’re at about 50 percent at Clareview and 30 percent for the other two,” Dave McReynolds with Edmonton Transit said.
“There’s not a solution that’s going to serve all of our customer’s needs, so we’re trying to do a balance and we’re hoping this is going to do it,” McReynolds said.
Officials said Impark is in charge of the reserved parking stalls, and users can contact the company for a reserved stall. The City said one of the first people to be signed up for a paid spot had been on the waiting list since 2012.
“There are actually 5,000 people on a wait list, so 5,000 people for 1,300 stalls, of that 75 percent, or just under 1,000 will be reserved so demand is high,” McReynolds said. “I can’t stress enough for our customers to plan ahead for Thursday morning.”
Throughout the transit system, ETS said about 1,700 free stalls are offered, and 2,300 reserved parking stalls are offered at the four LRT stations.
With files from Susan Amerongen
