6 months ago
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As the complaints about the lack of parking spaces for motor vehicles in the capital city continue, the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation is inviting property owners that hold lands suitable for the purpose to partner with the KSAMC in easing the problem.
The municipal body is also working to increase on-street parking in areas with high levels of traffic throughout the city, according to KSAMC Town Clerk Robert Hill.
“I know we have received ideas and unsolicited proposals to create new parking lots,” Hill said in an interview with the Financial Gleaner. “We have to go through those with a fine-tooth comb and will invite presentations on those. What we have been looking at are public-private partnership arrangements. But that has to go through several levels of approval…There’s no confirmation as it is still the ideation stage,” he said.
Commenting on the traffic congestion on the roads, Hill said the matter was being addressed by the KSAMC’s Roads and Traffic Committee, which meets every first Tuesday of each month.
“We are contemplating the implementation at least in a pilot programme in some targeted areas for on-street parking. We still have to conduct an impact study because there has been a marked increase of vehicles on the roads. We are working with the National Works Agency to get more technical, looking at the width of the roads to see how many cars can be accommodated on either side or on one side,” said Hill. “The corporation does have the authority to implement on-street parking.”
Noting that some streets already facilitated on-street parking, Hill said roads in high-trafficked areas, such as New Kingston, Cross Roads, Half Way Tree, Liguanea and Constant Spring, are being examined with a view to adding parking.
The issue is not only a thorny one for individuals but also for businesses.
“Unfortunately, when the persons park on the sidewalk in New Kingston, or wherever, the KSAMC moves these to the pound, and persons have to pay thousands of dollars to retrieve their vehicles because of shortage of parking. So any increase in parking spaces in the city is welcomed,” said President of the Small Business Association of Jamaica Garnett Reid.
He suggested utilising the former Public Works Department headquarters across from the National Works Agency on Maxfield Avenue and the St Andrew Parish Church parking lot on Hagley Park Road in Kingston as additional spaces for the Half Way Tree area and that the building that formerly housed the offices of the attorney General beside the Supreme Court be retrofitted for parking in downtown Kingston.
An improvement in parking could significantly boost doing business in the city, Reid said.
“I am a car dealer, and I know every day, hundreds of vehicles are coming into the island, so the streets are becoming more and more congested. When you don’t have parking, you cannot do business. Consumers will just move to other areas where there is parking,” he said.
Businessman Omar Gentles said businesses are particularly affected by the lack of parking in downtown Kingston and New Kingston.
“Parking has been a challenge for many years now, and it has only gotten worse as more persons own vehicles. People tell you that they would want to conduct business, but because they have nowhere to park, they just put it off to another day when they can reach early enough to get parking,” said Gentles, a cybersecurity consultant.
Gentles is calling for widespread consultation and research into how other countries have addressed their traffic problems.
“There are many cities with larger populations, which are more congested than Kingston, and which have brought about solutions that work for them and have created the necessary infrastructure to support motorists who want to park their vehicles and do business. We need to look at how others have dealt with the problem and develop solutions that match our country,” he said.
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