Most drivers know they are not supposed to park too close to a fire hydrant. But many may not know the exact distance they’re supposed to keep between their parked vehicle and a fire hydrant — five metres.

Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis is well aware of this number and says there’s no need to keep parked vehicles five metres away from fire hydrants. He said cutting that distance in half could result in more than 2,000 extra parking spaces in Surrey alone.

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Garis, who is also an adjunct professor in School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of the Fraser Valley, published a study that found reducing the clearance standard from five metres to 2.5 metres “would have no operational impact on the fire department’s ability to draw maximum available water from a fire hydrant.”

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Garis told Global News that “it means in the City of Surrey we’re going to give back about 2,600 parking spaces to the citizens.”

He notes that the National Fire Protection Association, an international organization that sets safety standards for local governments, says there should be a clear space of five feet — or 1.5-metres — around fire hydrants.

B.C.’s Motor Vehicle Act insists on a five-metre setback.

So why is it five metres in B.C. and other parts of Canada?

Garis can’t say definitively, but suspects that when Canada switched to the metric system from the imperial system in the 1970s, officials simply changed the distance from five feet to five metres, which is more than 16 feet.

The report also notes that one of the reasons for the five-metre setback is to make it easier for firefighters to spot fire hydrants. That’s less of an issue now thanks to technology, Garis argues.

“With the advancement of geographic positioning systems (GPS)… and other related technologies, along with the driver’s awareness of hydrant locations, this is not widely seen as an issue any longer at least in the compact urban setting,” the study said.

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The proposal has the support of the Fire Chiefs Association of B.C.

On Monday night, Surrey city councillors will hear from Garis to determine whether they support the plan, which would still need provincial approval.

If Surrey gives it the green light, it will go to the Union Of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) in September.

— With files from Julia Foy