View to the Toronto Estonian House parking lot
This seemingly simple question turns out to have many different answers that vary significantly. In his “Tale of two parking studies”, Markus Alliksaar reveals that the Madison project has conducted not one, but two parking studies, albeit both having significant methodological flaws. This left me wondering how many cars can actually be found parked at the current Estonian House parking lot?
The first parking study, conducted by LMM Engineering, found the maximum utilization at 12 parking spaces on Tuesday, between 4:30 and 5:00 pm and the second study by LEA Consulting found maximum utilization of 19 spaces on Saturday at 3:30pm and 36 on Tuesday 4:30pm.
In his article, Mr. Alliksaar pointed out that the LEA Consulting “parking utilization rate was studied in the summer when most of the Estonian House’s activities are shut down”. LEA Consulting report disagrees with this observation, stating that “While it is understood that the data of which this study is based on was collected in the month of August, which may differ in patterns from months during the Fall, Winter or Spring, it is further understood that the existing Estonian House experiences relatively consistent parking demand throughout the year.”
LMM Engineering study was conducted in March, not during low summer usage. How did LMM Engineering manage to count only 7 cars at the start (7pm) of a regular school night will likely never be known, but this is the number that was recorded.
Since both studies happened to count cars during low usage periods, the question remained - what is the actual maximum usage? Conveniently, the Estonian House activities are back after Labour Day and parking on several days were observed within a 2 week period.
The peak usage during this period was recorded on Tue, Sept 10 at 7:15pm with 71 cars in the parking lot. Other peak observation times on different days:
Thursday Sept 12 at 7:30pm – 54 cars
Saturday Sept 14 – 100% parking lot used by ETCU activities
Tuesdays, Sept 17 at 8pm – 40 cars (no high school attendance)
Thursday Sept 19 at 7:30pm – 46 cars
Saturday Sept 21 at 10:30am – 51 cars
Tuesday Sept 24 at 8:30pm – 57 cars
These observations do not attempt to answer the question whether 0 proposed parking spaces at Madison Ave is a sufficient number for community use but it does call into question the number of cars observed by the previous studies.
_____________________
Tuleb välja, et sellele näiliselt lihtsale küsimusele on mitu erinevat vastust mis erinevad üksteisest märkimisväärselt. Markus Alliksaar oma arvamusloos “Lugu kahest parkimisuuringust“ toob esile, et Madisoni projekt on läbi viinud mitte ühe vaid koguni kaks parkimisuuringut, olgu küll, et mõlemad uuringud sisaldavad mitmeid märkimisväärseid metoodilisi vigu. See jättis ikkagi rippuma õhku küsimusmärgi, et kui palju autosid on tegelikult pargitud praeguse Eesti Maja parkimisplatsil.
Esimene parkimisuuring, läbi viidud LMM Engineeringu poolt, teatas, et maksimaalkasutus leidis aset teisipäeva pärastlõunal kella 16.30 ja 17.00 vahel kui kasutusel oli 12 parkimiskohta. Teine parkimisuuring LEA Consulting poolt teatas, et maksimaalselt oli kasutatud 19 kohta laupäeval kell 15.30 ja 36 kohta teisipäeval kell 16.30
Oma arvamusloos Markus Alliksaar tõi välja, et LEA Consulting on teinud oma parkimisuuringus vea, et “parkimiskasutust uuriti suvel kui enamus Eesti Maja tegevusest on madalseisus.” LEA Consulting sellega ei nõustu, teatades, et “kuigi on arusaadav, et andmed millel see uuring põhineb on kogutud augustis ja need andmed võivad erineda andmetest kogutud sügisel, talvel või kevadel, on siiski teada, et praeguse Eesti Maja parkimisvajadus on suhteliselt ühtlane läbi terve aasta.”
LMM Engineering uuring oli tehtud märtsikuus, väljaspool madalat suveperioodi. Kuidas LMM Engineering suutis kokku lugeda ainult 7 autot kell 19.00 kui algas kooli tavaline õppepäev on müsteerium millele me vastust tõenäoliselt kunagi ei saa, kuid see oli see number mis nad avaldasid.
Suurim kasutus leidis aset teisipäeval, 10. septembril kell 19.15 – 71 pargitud autot. Teisi vaatlusi erinevatel päevadel:
Neljapäev, 12. september, 19.30 – 54 autot
Laupäev, 14. september – 100% parklat kasutatud Toronto Eesti Ühispanga tegevuse poolt
Teisipäev, 17. september, 20.00 – 40 autot (keskkooli ja gümnaasiumi tunnid jäid ära)
Neljapäev, 19. september, 19.30 – 46 autot
Laupäev, 21. september, 10:30 – 51 autot
Teisipäev, 24. september, 20.30 – 57 autot
Need vaatlused ei proovi anda vastust küsimusele kas Madisoni projekti poolt välja pakutud 0 parkimiskohta on küllalt meie kogukonnale, kuid need vaatlused seavad kahtluse alla eelnevate parkimisuuringute andmed.