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Abdell Ali, in the Nissan, parks at the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool on Friday morning. The area is being proposed as a possible park and ride site to ease parking congestion downtown. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Vancouver has park and rides, so does Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Should the city of Yellowknife also establish one to help alleviate downtown parking congestion?

That's the question the city's Smart Growth committee is asking as it ponders solutions, all the while acknowledging that there seems to be no magic bullet in terms of coming up with an answer.

The park and ride proposal envisions that commuters would park their vehicles at either the Multiplex arena or the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool/community arena parking lot and then walk or take a bus the rest of the way downtown.

"In my opinion, on Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., I think we have a congestion problem and we are starting discussions around how to alleviate that," said city councillor and committee member Cory Vanthuyne.

"Is there any easy answer to that? Probably not."

A park and ride could take 50 to 100 cars out of the downtown core per day, said Vanthuyne.

A car-pooling service, meanwhile, could divert another 50 to 100 cars, which would not only make it easier to move around downtown, but would also reduce carbon emissions.

"This would make for huge impact and relief on available parking," he added.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said a park and ride is one possible option because the city has seen a similar situation in the past, albeit an unofficial one.

Years ago people were parking at Stanton Territorial Hospital and then walked the Frame Lake Trail downtown. This didn't sit well with the hospital however, he said.

"That (parking lot) was filling up until the owners started figuring out what was going on," he said, adding the issue is not a huge priority just yet.

"If we were getting really overburdened in the downtown, it would be something that we would look at because you could have someone parking by the tennis courts or at the Multiplex with a bus doing shorter loops or something," he said.

Coun. Bob Brooks, who also sits on the committee, said the group is trying to list and categorize problems that exist related to downtown parking for the next committee meeting before looking at what the solutions could be.

"What the committee is saying right now is that there is no one solution that fits all of the problems," he said. A park and ride, he said, could be one option, but would probably only be used by a select group of people.

Brooks said this would be similar to trying to get people to walk or use transit more - it would not address the problem of daytime parking.

He said there are already apartment buildings in the downtown core being constructed that can reduce the "building footprint" by having parking under the first floor.

Brooks said a downtown parking study may not be necessary because some of the items in the Smart Growth Implementation Plan may give committee members enough of a direction to address the problems that exist.

The issue is expected to be raised again at the next Smart Growth committee meeting on March 14.

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