The results are in. You’re looking at – by at least one measure – the busiest parking space in Yellowknife.
This is the snappily entitled Space #1084 and, since a new parking app was introduced by the municipality at the start of the year, this is the most popular place to park and pay online.
The app, Mackay Pay, was gradually rolled out across the city’s downtown between January and March, covering 817 different spaces. On Monday, administrators provided their first volley of statistics to councillors.
In April, the number of parking payments made using the app is up to 165 per day on average – the total since launch is just over 6,000. The busiest parking areas, as residents would expect, are congregated around Franklin Avenue.
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Space #1084 is marked out for special attention as the best-selling space in the city. So far, the app has been used to pay for this space no fewer than 41 times. (We’re going to go ahead and assume that’s a ketchup stain on its front.)
The space is on 52nd Street and, perhaps not coincidentally, is one of the closest to City Hall. It’s also a stone’s throw from the cinema.
Parking space #1084 in front of Yellowknife’s City Hall. Ollie Williams/Cabin Radio
It’s not clear whether the online popularity of the space is driven by one app user obsessively parking there, or by many people routinely parking there for work (or in order to tirelessly lobby city councillors… or even to report on them).
Providing an update to councillors on Monday, director of public safety Dennis Marchiori said rollout of the app took “considerably longer” than planned, owing to poor weather conditions and difficulties getting the stickers (containing instructions and vital details such as the space number) on each meter.
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Marchiori noted that recent statistics show tickets for expired parking meters have plunged since the app was introduced. In March 2017, 825 tickets were issued; in March 2018, that number was down to 480.
That could be because officers’ attentions were elsewhere, or – from Marchiori’s perspective – it could be a sign the app is working.
“With an app and without having to just use coin, we may have more people paying with the app and not getting ticket violations,” he said. “That’s exactly what we wanted to see.”
Space #1084 may hold the online title but it’s less clear if it’s the most in-demand space when all forms of payment are included. The City does not release statistics related to payments by coin.
