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Writer's picture15-Minute Westport

Westport Well-Served by Car Parking

15 Minute Westport's report of parking availability in Westport over the course of 2022.


Traffic congestion in Westport is a growing issues and a concern for the town. With four lanes dedicated to cars on it main streets(two moving and two parking). Little space is left for pedestrians and cyclists.


One argument put forward by those opposed to change relates to car parking. The assumption is that there is not enough car parking available in the town to accommodate the removal of some on-street parking to reallocate to pedestrians or cycle paths.



To test this hypothesis and as part of 15-Minute's ongoing campaign for healthy streets and a more sustainable town center. 15 minute Westport organised a

longitudinal Parking Availability Survey. 15 minute Westport also carried out a once off Occupancy Parking Survey to understand the occupancy nature of parking in the town.


Methodology

The study took place over a 12 month period at regular intervals and at the same time on Saturday afternoons with some additional counts taking place during the week. The town was split into 5 zones and counters recorded any car park spaces that were empty and where a car could park if needed. We distinguished between abled spaces and disabled spaces. We counted three categories

of spaces;

  1. Public spaces, those that are either on streets or in public car parks with a pay and display system. We counted Distillery Road as public even though it is not all pay and display.

  2. Institutional spaces, those available in public institutions such as schools and churches and the Primary Healthcare Centre.

  3. Business spaces, these are spaces owned by private businesses such as hotels and shops.

We counted institutional and business spaces because there is already some cooperation between the sectors allowing access to their car parks. There is scope for this availability to be developed and increased.


Findings

On every count there were substantial numbers of spaces available. The average number of available abled spaces was 1003 and Disabled was 55.



access the detailed findings and view the full reports


The following are the key recommendations set out by the final report to be considered.


Recommendations

  1. We recommend the reconfiguration of zoned parking charges, incentivising parking in off-street car parks and disincentivising on-street parking in the town centre.

  2. Town Centre parking should be prioritised for persons with disabilities and loading. Non-disabled people can park within a reason able walking distance.

  3. Delivery times to businesses in the town centre should be restricted to outside peak times.

  4. Make people aware of available spaces through smart, interactive signage and parking apps.

  5. Routing of traffic should be reconfigured to feed as a priority first towards existing car parks’ entrances. For example, at present, traffic moves up Bridge Street and has to loop back to the Mill Street or James Street car parks. Another example is that traffic coming from the Castlebar side could ideally be looped around to Mill Street and avoid Shop Street altogether.

  6. Increase dwell time, i.e. the time a person spends in the town, by incentivising parking on the perimeter.

  7. Change the Pay and display System in the off-street car parks to a barrier system where people pay as they leave. This supports longer dwell time as they are not worrying about getting back within an hour, etc. This is done in private and hospital car parks.

  8. Bin lorries should not go through town during peak daytime. This would also solve a problem of bins congesting the footpaths.

  9. Parking spaces in the town centre - apart from disabled parking spaces - should only be 15-minute stop times, to allow in particular for people with mobility issues to be dropped off or collected.

  10. The number of disabled parking spaces should be increased and brought up to the compliant design standard as detailed in the recently published Accessibility Report on Westport.

  11. The primary function of the town is as a place where people live, work, shop and socialise. Westport is not a through road, it is a town, a social heart, a community, a place to shop, meet and visit. The movement of traffic efficiently through its centre should not be the chief priority.

  12. We recommend that shared use of existing underutilised car parking be negotiated with institutions and businesses e.g., the car parks at Primary Care Centre, Tesco and schools.

  13. Introduce a recognition or reward scheme to acknowledge businesses who make their spaces available when not in use.

 






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