Take Back the Boulevard, a community effort to make Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock more sustainable and lively (and less of a death race/motor speedway), hosted its first meeting for locals last month (an earlier gathering focused on business concerns). Many ideas were bandied about (reducing or enlarging the median, creating street furniture/art, adding buffered bike lanes separated from vehicular traffic, etc.), but one of the more novel was a proposition for reverse-angled parking, reports Eastsider LA. Angled parking is rare but alive in greater LA--it's used in Larchmont Village, for instance. Reverse-angled parking is just like it sounds: cars back into a slanted space. Perceived benefits, according to the Eastsider, include safer exits for cars (since drivers can more easily see vehicles coming by), as well as bicycles. This idea was tried in Austin, but drivers had difficulties, forcing transportation officials to hire guides to help drivers park (backing into a spot is likely terrifying, if not impossible, if cars behind you are traveling >30 mph). Reverse-angled parking would also make it more difficult to have buffered bike lanes. Even with the potential drawbacks, the idea was greeted warmly at the meeting. However, no firm changes for Colorado have yet been rubber-stamped. · Will Going Backwards Solve Eagle Rock's Parking Problems? [The Eastsider]
· Eagle Rock Taking Back the Blvd. [Curbed LA]
· Take Back the Boulevard [Official Site]
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