[B]URLINGTON — Drivers who have struggled to find parking downtown might be surprised to learn a 2011 study found that 35 percent of spaces were vacant at peak usage times throughout the city.
That study included private parking, which accounts for 50 percent of parking spaces in the city, but it jibes with a national figure showing that 30 percent of traffic in downtown areas is made up of people looking for parking, according to parking expert Jeffrey Tumlin with the national consulting firm Nelson/Nygaard Associates. Tumlin visited Burlington in 2013 and delivered the keynote address at a Parking Summit convened by the city.
City officials hope that new “dynamic” signage to be installed by the end of October will help fill spaces at three public parking garages that offer two-hour free parking. The signs will indicate if a garage has open spaces and directional arrows pointing toward the next closest garage when a garage is full.
The Lakeview Parking Garage, located behind the Hotel Vermont, is typically only 67 percent full, according to Kelly Devine, executive director of the Burlington Business Association, which is working with the city to address parking issues downtown.
The new signs are part of an overhaul of city signage that is intended to help drivers and pedestrians better navigate downtown. By the end of next month, the city will install more than 80 new “wayfinding” signs throughout downtown.
At a Monday news conference, Mayor Miro Weinberger said the initiative was an important piece of the downtown infrastructure that will make Burlington more “accessible and inviting,” while also reducing congestion and confusion.
Devine said the signage is the “easiest and most effective way to say welcome” to people visiting Burlington. The new signs will include French in some cases to help the high volume of French-speaking Canadians who visit the city, as well as symbols recognized internationally to help all visitors.
The project will include 36 new “hairpin” driving signs — curved steel frames with aluminum panels that can be seen throughout downtown. There will also be 29 new pole-mounted signs intended to help pedestrians find attractions and destinations downtown and along the waterfront. Additional signs inside parking garages will direct people to the exits.
The initiative is part of Burlington’s larger development plan for its downtown and waterfront.
The $555,000 project is being paid for largely through federal grants, including $300,000 from the Highway Administration. That money requires a municipal match of $75,000, which is being drawn from parking revenues at garages and meters.
Another $180,000 is being reallocated from state transportation fund grants, which are federal grants that pass through the state appropriation process. No municipal match is required to use those funds.