Salt Lake City is doing it. Bethlehem, Penn., too. Austin is also into it. What do these cities have in common? Reverse angle parking. Some say it's parking made simpler.
Regular angled parking offers many advantages. It's easy to stripe, it provides more total spots on a street, and it prevents doors from opening into the street.
But you've probably driven into one of the many angled parking spots in downtown Milwaukee and wondered, "How am I going to back out with all these passing cars and blind spots?"
Just think if you could back into that spot instead. When backing in, your only concern is the space directly behind your car; if that area is clear, you're good to go. But getting out of your spot is easy since your view is clearer.
Here is how it would work: As the driver needing to park, you would stop in a travel lane, signal a turn and then back into your parking space, all in full view of oncoming traffic. Leaving the space, again, you would be facing outward, better able to see oncoming traffic and move smoothly into it.
"I think reverse angle parking is worth exploring, says Milwaukee Downtown BID executive director, Beth Nicols. Anything we can do to make the whole downtown experience more pleasant for our customers. I would want to look at the pros and cons including accident statistics in other cities where this concept has been implemented," says Nicols.
Many cities have tried the tactic on one or two streets in densely populated districts. If Downtown isn't willing to try it, the East Side might.
"Reverse angle parking makes incredible sense," says Ald. Michael S. D'Amato. "It is easier than parallel parking and safer than traditional angle parking. Ever since a trip to Salt Lake City a couple of years ago I've been trying to implement it someplace in my district. The opportunity hasn't yet arisen, but once people are introduced to it I think they will love it."
The official word comes from City Engineer Jeff Polenske.
"Reverse angle parking offers a similar parking maneuver to parallel parking and places the driver in a better position than traditional angle parking to see oncoming traffic when exiting the parking space. At this time we are not proposing to convert any of our existing traditional angle parking to reverse angle parking but we are considering the use of reverse angle parking at couple new locations."
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
