Downtown St. John’s Attempts to Ease Parking Pains with New Map

Downtown St. John’s Attempts to Ease Parking Pains with New Map
by Terri Coles

St. John’s has a great downtown area: lots of local shops, full of character, short on blight. But it does have a problem with parking – as in there’s not a lot of it – and that can keep shoppers away.

Last winter that problem became especially serious because of the dual issue of a ridiculous amount of snow and a poor plan to clear it all away. The city has promised that the snow will be handled more effectively this year, particularly in the downtown area.

But the parking itself is an ongoing issue, particularly for a growing city. In response, Downtown St. John’s just launched a parking awareness campaign that aims to ease some of those growing pains and make people aware that parking does exist downtown.

That campaign includes a handy map of downtown that’s both convenient for shoppers and a handy marketing tool for businesses. See it above.

The business awareness association points out that there are 800 two-, four-, and twelve-hour parking metres downtown along Water Street, Duckworth Street, Harbour Drive, and connecting streets.

There are another 311 city-owned parking spots and 2,000 private spots in the area bordered by Springdale Street, New Gower Street, Cavendish Square, and Harbour Drive.

The map points out four kinds of parking available downtown: by permit, permit and hourly, free after 6 p.m. and weekends, and permit by day and free on evenings and weekends. It also marks areas where parking can be found, which is a lot more efficient than driving up and down Duckworth and Water multiple times.