By Stefanie Jackson – The Cape Charles town council unanimously approved the first phase of recommendations to improve parking in town, including replacing unpopular reverse-angle parking with more common, pull-in angled parking on Mason Avenue, its main street for business.
The recommendations approved Feb. 21 were made by an ad hoc parking committee.
Reverse-angle parking replaced parallel parking on Mason Avenue in 2015, recommended by the town planning commission to provide additional parking and promote safety.
But more than a dozen citizens at a Feb. 21 public hearing spoke out against reverse-angle parking before a standing room-only audience in the Cape Charles civic center, or had their written comments read into the record.
Mollie Pickron said one visitor was so upset about getting a parking ticket for improperly parking in a reverse-angle space that all the purchases made in town were returned.
She witnessed a family of five return to their car after getting ice cream, and upon seeing the parking ticket on the windshield, the father said, “Let’s get out of this town, we’re never coming back.”
Pickron also referenced a letter to Town Manager Larry DiRe from a mainland Virginia couple disputing a ticket they received for parking incorrectly on Mason Avenue at night. They didn’t see the “Back-In Angle Parking Only” sign because it was “not properly illuminated.”
Another couple wrote in 2016 that several members of their wedding party received parking tickets outside of a local pub, but they would have moved their cars if asked.
“We bought some property on Tazewell (Avenue) a few days before the wedding, so thank you for the welcome to the neighborhood, we definitely won’t forget it,” they wrote.
Locals agree strict enforcement of reverse-angle parking is not friendly to tourists or welcoming to newcomers.
L.D. Downs said people go on vacation to relax and unwind, and that makes them susceptible to a phenomenon she dubbed “vacation brain.” They are not in the proper mindset to process the unfamiliar, like reverse-angle parking.
Karen Gay recommended that local police follow the practice of other localities and give a first-time parking violator, instead of a ticket, a “courtesy warning” – “a really friendly way to welcome their tourists.”
She disapproves of reverse-angle parking in spite of being a “good backer-upper” because large trucks park to her left and block her view, causing her to worry that her vehicle will be struck by oncoming traffic as she inches out of the space.
But David Kabler wrote that when passengers, especially children, exit a vehicle in a reverse-angle parking space, the open car doors act as barriers between them and the street, making them safer.
“If one life is saved due to that feature, then it is worth having reverse-angle parking.”
Richard Leal agreed and added, “If you can’t back in, you shouldn’t be driving a car.”
“How many of you do things great the first time you ever tried to?” countered Andrew Follmer, who owns two Mason Avenue businesses.
He added that one-third of the reverse-angle parking spaces offer no additional safety benefits, because the curb is blocked by objects like flower beds, and pedestrians must enter the street instead of walking straight to the sidewalk.
In two emails, John Barrett called reverse-angle parking “ridiculous” for disrupting the flow of traffic when a vehicle stops to back into a spot, and Debbie Suddeth noted reverse-angle parking aims exhaust at the shops and sidewalks, “stinking up the air for anyone walking by.”
The Phase One parking recommendations also include parallel parking on the north side of Mason Avenue and a handicapped parking space.
The Virginia Department of Transportation must approve the changes and the town must find funding for the project before it can proceed.