New parking idea being considered

An innovative parking method, which is popular in Europe, could make an appearance in Sisters along with a proposed Hood Avenue/Main Avenue couplet.

The parking method would require drivers to back in to angled parking spaces along the two proposed one-way highways.

Jean Wells Keenan, owner of The Stitchin' Post, said backing in to a parking space is less intimidating than the standard backing out onto busy streets.

Keenan said she has to reverse out of parking lots in downtown Bend and feels it creates a traffic hazard. She said she favors the reverse-in parking or parallel parking.

Keenan met with the couplet advisory committee last week in its second meeting to discuss plans to create a couplet with a one-way eastbound Hood Avenue arm and a westbound Main Avenue arm. The committee will make recommendations for the design of the couplet to Sisters City Council and the Oregon Department of Transportation after its final monthly meeting in May.

The couplet is intended to relieve traffic congestion on Cascade Avenue during peak periods. If ODOT funds the estimated $2 million couplet, it is slated to be complete in 2010.

The committee discussed many criteria for the design and safety of the couplet, including the need to implement parking along both of the proposed 25 mile-per-hour highways.

Eric Graves, a consultant from Cogan Owens Cogan, introduced the committee to the new reverse-in angle parking option. He said it is a new parking design, which is popular in Europe and used in Seattle and on an experimental block in Portland.

He said angled parking conserves space and can provide more parking spaces than parallel parking.

He said in an email to The Nugget that the reverse-in angled parking would be safer than front-in angled parking because the "backing maneuver required to exit the parking stall often requires drivers to blindly back into the travel lane. This is a safety hazard to other motorists on the street, but especially dangerous to bicyclists who are generally less visible.

"Reverse-in angled parking provides much better visibility for parked vehicles entering the traffic flow."

Implementing such a new parking method, however, could confuse drivers if they are not well-informed of the design, Graves said. He said such parking has caused confusion in other cities.

"People don't know what to do with it," Graves said. "They make U-turns and end up facing the wrong way. We would need to educate the public and have signs."

Graves said he would do more research on reverse-in angle parking and present the data to the committee at its January meeting.