Less parking for students, more safety for drivers
Milledgeville City Marshal Jack Graham, who is responsible for Milledgeville’s Public Works Department, said the primary reason for restriping the spaces was safety.
“With the old spaces, cars backing out would protrude too far into traffic, and cars would have to swerve across the double yellow line,” said Graham. “But now there is adequate room for drivers and parkers.”
According to Graham, the new parking spaces are 20 feet in length, a size sufficient for most cars and even SUVs.
Graham estimated the change caused a net loss of two parking spaces, which he deemed to be a small price for increased safety. The city plans to restripe parking spaces on other streets, as soon as they can record it on the road crews’ schedules. Graham specifically denoted Wilkinson Street, between Montgomery and Hancock, and two blocks of Wayne Street downtown, as streets that would soon have parallel parking.
Lauren van Winklen, a sophomore psychology major, disagreed with Graham’s rationale.
“Well, I think it’s really frustrating for me, because I live over in the Village, so I’m considered a resident, but I’m so far away that I have to depend on the shuttle or a car,” said van Winklen.
“So I think it’s really tough because we just don’t have enough parking here. So to make it less, even though it’s safer, they need to offer other options. They need to put more parking somewhere else.”
“I think that (it’s) a good idea,” Andrew Harlan, exercise science major, said. “Two spaces is not that bad. For safety reasons, I guess that’s a good thing. Two’s a good sacrifice for safety.”
As of yet, there has been no negative feedback from citizens to the city about the changes.
“Some residents have called to thank us and have said that they wish it had been done sooner,” Graham said.
Graham said that any feedback or suggestions from students is welcome.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Mar 6 2009. Filed under News.
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