According to Town Manager Hozey, Cape Charles will be keeping reverse-angle parking for a while. It appears that VDOT requirements were not adequately considered in previous design concepts, and changing the parking configuration will result in the significant loss of available spaces on Mason Avenue. Below is the full message from the town:
The Town has been working with many businesses, groups, and individuals for a lot of years to improve the parking situation on Mason Avenue. As a result, the current configuration of back-in diagonal parking was instituted on the north side of the street to increase the number of parking spots. But this configuration turned out to be very unpopular. Therefore, a concerted effort has been made in recent years to “reverse the reverse” and change this to pull-in diagonal parking.
Until very recently, the Mayor and Town Council and all our residents understood that the process to implement this “reverse” was well underway and had preliminary approval from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).
However, as a result of recent changes in Town staff, VDOT was contacted to verify this coordination/approval. What we learned was disappointing.It now appears that VDOT requirements were not adequately considered in previous design concepts that would change the parking configuration. If these requirements are properly considered, reversing the reverse on the diagonal parking would wind up costing a huge number of existing parking spaces.
This is clearly unsatisfactory, and therefore the Town is now reassessing the options. The Town takes full responsibility for any lack in coordination and will work diligently to re-engage stakeholders and determine how to best move forward. We sincerely apologize for the frustration and disappointment that this has brought, and we are committed to learning what we can from all this so that issues like this won’t happen again.John HozeyTown Manager
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Why wouldn’t we just change the direction of the angle and do pull in parking instead of reverse? How would that change the number of spot?
So our Town Council and Planning Commission spent years screwing up our parking and now it is going to take years to fix it. Take the same number of spaces and paint them in the opposite direction. Use white paint for the new spaces and black paint over the old lines. Come on MAN!
Reverse parking,
Having owned a taxi business in Va.Bch. The police dept controlled us. We were advised as were they by Insurance companies that this is safer then straight in, also when in a parking lot try to pull straight tthru so you can pull straight out
So, that being said, We have a large amount of Golf carts that take whole spots,
As a motorcycle enthusiast we consider this to be poor driving etiquette, one should always park so as to share the space,thus motorcycles and golf carts should always park on an angle to allow for a neighbor to park with them.
Trucks, I have a large truck, backing into a parking spot is just showing off. What is worse is we stick out into traffic. How hard is it to parallel park elsewhere and walk a few extra feet. Common on you guys and girls you know who you are.
Just as motorcycles and golf carts can be “space hogs” so can you.
Be more considerate,for everyone,nobody wants to clip your bumper,or side swipe an on coming car to avoid your big truck so don’t put them in that position.
We have a parking problem,yes,but we could help to do something about it instead of bellyaching.
Also those who rent out carts tell your customer to diagonally park, that’s the least you could do.