Thumbs Down on Parking Idea

As of Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Back-in diagonal parking can be a good idea under the right circumstances. But in Southern Pines, it’s clearly an idea whose time has not come.

Merchants have spoken out against it almost unanimously. And, judging from conversations in downtown stores and on sidewalks, so many potential customers are so violently against the whole concept that it seems likely that significant percentages of them would simply stay away from the downtown if confronted with this unwelcome innovation on a wide scale.

That’s the last thing we need. For those reasons and others, the town is justified in putting the whole idea — even the idea of a test — way back on the shelf for now. The local economy, like the national one, is shaky enough as it is without choosing this moment to create unnecessary further complications for business people.

In a survey of the Broad Street merchant community conducted Friday by merchant Tony Grausso and others, 58 of the 60 polled expressed themselves as strongly opposed to the concept of back-in parking. Perhaps more significantly, 57 said they were against even the trial that had been suggested on one block. Such an overwhelming consensus is impossible to ignore.

Part of Bike Plan

Back-in parking has been promoted as part of a broad-based bicycle plan that the Town Council approved in 2010, with the aim of making the town more bike-friendly. Anything that can be done to advance that worthy goal is a good thing — anything, that is, short of plunging the town into needless conflict and consternation.

The most visible difference between back-in diagonal parking and the traditional front-in kind is that the angle is reversed, requiring the motorist to drive beyond the space and then back into it, in rather the same way one now backs into a parallel-parking space.

One big advantage of the proposed change — and the reason the bike plan calls for it — is that it’s safer for passing cyclists. The reason: The driver leaving a space can look out his side window and see if anyone is coming, as opposed to backing out blind and perhaps causing a collision with a cyclist. The big disadvantage is that it is harder for a driver — especially an older driver, of which this community has more than its share — to pull forward, put it in reverse, and back into the space in the first place.

A Solution Looking for a Problem

Even if local drivers eventually became familiar enough with the new system to use it safely, it might still cause a degree of chaos where out-of-town visitors are concerned. Here again, our community is blessed with a greater-than-average number of those. And some of them already have trouble understanding and adapting to the unusual “Yield to Left” signs at every intersection on both sides of the railroad track. No need to add to that existing confusion.

For all those reasons, and also because we know of no rash of bicycle injuries under the present system, back-in parking for Southern Pines has come to look more and more like a solution in search of a nonexistent problem.

Let’s look instead at the simpler “shared-lane” concept and move on down the road.

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DoubleHeroides 1 year, 1 month ago

Fearing change is not a reason to reject it. A general lack of understanding and a lack of wanting to understand appear to be pervading this issue in such a way that functional discourse has ground to a standstill.

Research tells us that back in angle parking does not hurt businesses in any amount and to be frank if the citizens of Moore County and beyond cannot function as decent drivers in general to the point that they cannot back in to park there is not something wrong with the Southern Pines parking situation, there is something wrong with the average driver. I consider this issue less an indictment of an idea in a long ago adopted plan and more of an indictment of the public for failing to be functional when it comes to the most universal of American necessities for modern survival – driving.

wrich49 1 year, 1 month ago

Somebody smart once said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" When this idea was first introduced, I laughed out loud as I imagined the scene when people tried to do this. Good for the merchants. I like and admire bike riders, but they must be as diligent around cars as I am in my car around transfer trucks, The bigger vehicle always wins in a collision.

JER 1 year, 1 month ago

"The bigger vehicle always wins in a collision." This is the thought process that brought us Hummers and other large low mpg vehicles and it is also why you always see 80 year old folks driving Cadillacs and Lincolns. But hey, this is America so we can do whatever we have the cash to do. I am disappointed that the back in parking is being discarded because I thought my idea for Broad Street Valet Parking was a real job producer and money maker.

PBinNC 1 year, 1 month ago

I was willing to try it. I back my car into the garage all of the time. I detest the angled parking because it is so hard to get out. Cars passing by don't always go slowly, plus large cars parked next to mine make it impossible to see. I only parallel park when I go to downtown Southern Pines and if no spaces are available, I go elsewhere. That includes driving to the Pinehurst Post Office off of Route 5, a beautiful modern facility that I don't think a lot of people in Pinehurst appreciate.

wrich49 1 year, 1 month ago

Hi JER...I am not advocating that anyone buy a gas guzzler .I know there are safe smaller cars that can also get good gas mileage. I was saying that in any accident between a bicycle, motorcycle and a car, it's the cyclist who has the most to lose. I worked in the ER at Moore Regional and x-rayed victims of these kinds of accidents. The worst injuries were almost always suffered by the cyclist. One orthopedic doctor would not call motorcycles anything but "murdercycles," having much experience with their victims. My point is, like it or not, there is only so much to be done to protect a vulnerable human body against a vehicle that could weigh several tons. Of course I would try back-in parking if given the option. But, I still think the results, (only my opinion,now) would be really funny when some people attempted it.

DownTownJoe 1 year, 1 month ago

I find it very sad that a small group of vocal people have shut down a experiment. Southern Pines has a population of around twelve thousand if my memory serves me right. If a group of sixty people can shut down a trial grounded in the hope of making our streets safer for our children and the motorist of this area what does that say about our community? Are we being run by a small selfish group of elite or are we looking to the future of this area with an eye to making it better for all? I understand the concern of the down town businesses as far as back in parking may effect their tourist business. I also agree just making an out right decision to change all parking would not be a good idea. However to say we will not even give it a try on a limited scale is gross negligence. I work down town and know of one place where it is possible to reverse in to a parking space. When I have the opportunity to back in I do. I feel safer when I go to leave. I think we need to try this. What harm will it do? Give BPAC a side street and let them paint it however they think will be safest. We owe it to ourselves, our children and future generations.