EasyPark is the off-street parking operator for the City of Vancouver. The corporation reports to the city but also represents the parking interests of the downtown business community. The directors of EasyPark commissioned three studies of transient parking. The first report traces parking development in Downtown Vancouver from the 1960s. The second study by Bunt & Associates measured the current supply and demand for transient parking and forecasted the 2031 demand. The Mustel Group Market Research did a market survey of transient parking attitudes. The question of the definition of transient parking, the demand of such parking and its supply were the focus of the studies. Forecasting the required supply proved to be an interesting task given the need to comply with the city’s sustainable parking policies and the opinions of the downtown business community. This paper will explain the growth of parking in Vancouver over the last half century and how that is divided into various uses. The main discussion will deal with the question of estimating the demand for transient parking and how much should be supplied to provide some acceptable level of service for both parking customers and downtown business .
