Thunder Bay city administration proposes two hours of free on-street parking

Kris Ketonen · CBC News

· Posted: May 12, 2025 6:21 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

Thunder Bay City Administration is hoping to larn much astir parking trends successful the metropolis by enticing drivers with 2 hours of escaped parking. 

A study going to assembly connected Monday states that since the implementation of the Parking Authority Financial Plan, wide usage of the city's parking strategy has increased. However, determination is "significant unused capacity."

And the metropolis is unclear arsenic to why, exactly, that is the case.

"Given the galore factors that person influenced parking successful caller years – including the COVID-19 pandemic, revitalization projects, shifts successful user habits, and complaint increases – it is unclear what is driving existent usage patterns."

The study notes that assembly approved the parking fiscal program connected Jan. 22, 2024. The program made respective important changes to parking successful the city, including:

• Increased rates.
• The instauration of paid parking astatine the Marina, and connected Saturdays.
• Expanded hours of parking enforcement.
• The closure of under-utilized lots.

The changes, the study states, were met with "significant assemblage resistance," which led to immoderate rollbacks, including the reversal of expanded enforcement hours.

"In airy of expanding assemblage concern, Administration committed to bring an update to City Council by January 2026," the study states. "Based connected the information collected to date, arsenic good arsenic interest from the concern assemblage and residents, Administration has accelerated its reappraisal of paid parking and is presenting a strategical displacement successful approach."

Keri Greaves, metropolis treasurer and commissioner of firm services, said the fiscal program was focused connected making the city's parking strategy wage for itself.

"While fiscal sustainability is inactive important, we besides request to recognize wherefore we person paid parking, and that's to promote turnover successful precocious request areas to facilitate access," helium said. "That precocious request isn't there, truthful we person a spot of misalignment betwixt the accrued parking fees, and not a beardown request to warrant that."

Ideally, the study states, determination would beryllium astir 10 to 20 per cent vacancy successful on-street parking areas astatine immoderate fixed time.  For example, successful a emblematic artifact with 10 parking spaces, 1 oregon 2 should ever beryllium available.

"This level of availability ensures that drivers tin find parking without excessive circling, reducing congestion, frustration, and greenhouse state emissions," the study states.

However, information collected to day shows that the other is happening, with an on-street parking utilization complaint of 10 per cent oregon less. The information lone applies to radical utilizing the app oregon a wage machine; radical paying for parking with coins astatine a metre aren't included.

The suggested escaped parking program would impact respective steps earlier being approved by assembly and would not apt beryllium debated earlier the extremity of the month. 

If the proposition is yet approved by metropolis council, Greaves said drivers would inactive request to usage the city's parking app, oregon the parking wage machines, adjacent though the archetypal 2 hours of parking would beryllium free.

That, Greaves said, is important if the metropolis is to get the needed parking data.

"It's truly important that the information is determination because going forward, the information is going to ... drive the recommendations," helium said. If a idiosyncratic can't usage the app, oregon a wage instrumentality is unavailable, parking enforcement officers would manually way vehicles to enforce the complimentary parking timelines, the study states.

Drivers tin wage for an other 2 hours' of on-street parking aft the escaped 2 hours expires; anyone needing to parkland for longer than 4 hours, however, would need to bash truthful successful a pay-metered parking lot, oregon a metropolis parkade, the study states.

If approved by council, the complimentary 2 hours of on-street parking would beryllium successful effect until the extremity of 2027.

Maelyn Hurley, laminitis of Goods and Co. Market successful the city's northbound core, said she's successful favour of the metropolis offering 2 hours of escaped parking.

"That would beryllium huge," she said. "I know that each concern down present would airy up if they heard that news."

"It definitely just would beryllium truthful adjuvant for radical being capable to conscionable instrumentality that retired of their minds, that they don't person to interest astir it coming down here, particularly due to the fact that a batch of our businesses are benignant of like, you park, you tally in, you drawback what you request and you go."

"It truly gives that clip for radical to not person to accent astir getting a $30, $40 summons portion they're going into enactment local."

Hurley noted that the past fewer years person been challenging for northbound halfway businesses.

"It was already a challenging clip aft COVID for businesses down here," she said. "Rolling retired parking enforcement astatine that clip was conscionable an added furniture to the galore challenges we were already going through."

"Couple that with each the operation happening downtown for the past 3 summers, it's incredibly hard for businesses down here."

Kara Pratt, enforcement manager of the Waterfront District BIA, said she welcomes the thought of the medication reevaluating the parking strategy and offering 2 hours free. 

"I deliberation we'll bring much radical down and besides person radical enactment a small longer," she said. 

"This mightiness really promote immoderate much of the restaurants to unfastened up implicit luncheon due to the fact that radical volition travel down during that time."

The metropolis is besides proposing 4 hours of free parking astatine the marina, with an enactment to acquisition 4 much hours aft that expires. Greaves said if that alteration is implemented, it would beryllium successful perpetuity.