City Council to remove parking experiment from Downtown Newhall.

[view:node_ad=5]It once used to be called San Fernando Road, but now it’s called Main Street. It also used to have parking spaces drivers pulled into front-first. That too was removed not long ago by the city of Santa Clarita.

 

A parking experiment led to the creation of back-in parking on the strip of Main Street in Downtown Newhall. Before the re-striping took place, some residents questioned why the City would attempt such an odd parking standard. The uproar grew tremendously, however, after the parking method was put into practice.

 

City Manager Ken Pulskamp first defended the parking, saying that it is designed to be safer for children. With back-in parking, when passengers open their car doors, they have an unobstructed walk to the sidewalk, and a protective barrier from the street. The parking was also said to aid in loading car trucks.

 

However, Pulskamp also said that if the community couldn’t or did not want to adjust to the new parking, the City would look at removing it.

 

Well, that day has come. Last night, the Santa Clarita City Council voted to re-stripe Main Street and bring it back to front-in parking.

 

Aside from driver dislike, another reason for the failure of the back-in parking was that it was striped at a relatively closed angle. This forced larger vehicles to stick out into the traffic lanes.