Costco locations across Western Canada are requiring employees to park off-site/on surrounding public roads rather than in their parking lots.
At the Edmonton Business Centre, this is becoming a legitimate safety concern on 104th ave NW.
Employees are parking along the surrounding roads, and the number and placement of vehicles is obstructing visibility for drivers trying to cross or enter intersections. There have already been multiple near misses because drivers can't properly see oncoming traffic without slowly creeping their vehicles out into the intersection. Every morning I cross 104th ave at the Costco business center to get into my work's parking lot, and have nearly been struck three times creeping forward attempting to see past all these vehicles. On Monday morning there were more then forty cars parked alongside the street.
Note that there is only a sidewalk on 1/2 the street, and vehicles speed 60-70km down this road regularly, making it unsafe to be parking there. Not to mention in winter, where the cars are parked, is where the snow is cleared to. If they park there during the winter the road will effectively be turned into a one-way.
And this is Edmonton. We're talking about a city that can see -30°C to -40°C temperatures and significant snowfall. Employees are being expected to park away from the building and walk in these conditions without a sidewalk while the employee vehicles themselves are creating visibility issues on nearby roads. Parking enforcement & bylaw have been notified, but in our experience it’ll take weeks for them to get around to this.
I understand Costco wanting to prioritize parking spaces for customers, but surely there has to be a safer solution than pushing employee parking onto public roads and creating hazards for both employees and other drivers.