KINGSTON – The City of Kingston is looking to rethink its strategies regarding parking issues by changing the way people commute and park in the city.
Mayor Steven Noble told members of the city’s business community, during a Wednesday discussion on parking and metering, that Kingston is moving toward focusing on a more bike and walker friendly approach.
Noble said rather than invest $100,000 in a parking study, which could
still be on the table depending how participatory budgeting goes for the
2019 budget, the city would rather push non-automobile commuting incentives
like a soon-to-be-finished rail trail, a merger between Citibus and UCAT,
bike lanes, as well as the cost of weekend metering expenses.
“One of the things we want to be able to do is not only by making Kingston more walkable and bike-able by having better directional signage, folks will be able to know, for instance, with our Kingston Point Rail Trail project that will be completed people will be able to ride their bike from Downtown to Midtown without going up any steep hills,” said Noble. “That’s something that we think is going to make a big difference.”
As far as metering, Noble said it isn’t bringing a lot of revenue
to the city. Rather than have to pay weekend parking enforcement and maintenance
staff, or having more meters put in, the city is entertaining the idea
of using their existing kiosk technology to be utilized for street-side
metering. This will allow for a benefit to the various business districts
because the metering prices can be easily changed, so metering can be
increased in congested areas and decreased in areas having less traffic,
Noble said.
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