In many Commercial Business Districts (CBD), the lack of available parking is seen as deterrent. One methodology to provide more parking is creation of traditional, pull-in angle parking. However, in order to properly implement traditional angle parking, a substantial amount of ROW is necessary to provide the proper maneuver space for vehicles to back out. With traditional angle parking the width of the street and subsequently pedestrian crossing distances become excessive. At signalized intersections, the pedestrian crossing times can be excessive, leading to decreased vehicle mobility. More typically, the width of available ROW is insufficient. While the angle of the parking can be reduced to narrow the required width, as the parking angle becomes more acute, the angle parking yield approaches that parallel parking. Ideally, angle parking without the wide maneuver space would address the problem. One solution is back-in angle parking. The biomechanics necessary to position a car into a back-in angle space is not much different than that required for parallel parking. Leaving the back-in angle space is no more different than pulling into the street. Furthermore, no maneuver space is typically required for a parallel parking space. Without the need for a maneuver space, the back-in angle parking provides the necessary additional parking without the need for the excessive or unavailable ROW. Pottstown, Pennsylvania, USA commissioned a study of back-in angle parking as part of a Downtown revitalization. A number of other cities were studied with similar parking including Wilmington, Delaware; Seattle; Indianapolis; Salem, Oregon and Washington, D.C.
Abstract